A Quarian's Trek
by Archer83
Summary: A grieving daughter's life is forever changed when an omnipotent being by the name of Q suddenly appears in the engineering deck of the Normandy, causing Tali'Zorah vas Normandy to experience an adventure that she could never have imagined. This quarian is about to go where no one has gone before. Rated T for now.
1. A Gift For You Mon Capitan

A Quarian's Trek by: Archer83 and Vergil1989 the Crossover King

**Disclaimer: The authors own nothing, except for their not so wild imaginations.**

**Summary: **A grieving daughter's life is forever changed when an omnipotent being by the name of Q suddenly appears in the engineering deck of the Normandy, causing Tali'Zorah vas Normandy to experience an adventure that she could never have imagined. This quarian is about to go where no one has gone before. Rated T for now.

**Authors' Notes; **_Vergil1989_; I feel odd taking the reins on this, but Archer has suddenly found himself tongue tied so I guess someone has to step in. :P Joking aside, this is his idea for the most part, I'm just lending help where I can.

Now, for the story itself, while this is mostly based on the 2009 Star Trek film, we also plan to throw in well known characters from past movies and such and give them a more modern feel as seen in the 2009 movie, with the appropriate changes made given the alternate time line of course. I'm not a Trekkie fan nearly as much as Archer so I have to take his word on anything ST related lol. Anyway, as if the title wasn't apparent on its own, we plan to throw in elements from Mass Effect, mostly up to the 2nd one. We haven't decided what we're really doing per say since I don't plan anything story wise in advance as it were anyway and I can't read Archer's mind, (what little there is, :P), but we hope you enjoy the show all the same.

Chapter 1: A Gift For You Mon Capitan.

**Engineering Deck, Normandy SR 2**

Did they do the right thing? Did she do the right thing? There was so many questions, so many unresolved issues between herself and her father, but now that he was dead, there was no chance of those same issues being sorted out. Sitting alone in engineering, Kenneth and Gabby having went off to bed for the night, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, not Tali'Zorah vas Nedas or even Tail'Zorah nar Tasi which translated as 'crew of nowhere' and 'child of no one' respectively, as those fucking bosh'tets for Admirals would have had it if not for Commander Shepard clearing her name of treason, was leaning against the wall to the drive core, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them in turn. "Damn it! I don't know anymore..."

She didn't necessarily care if Jack heard her or not at that moment, the psychotic biotic having made herself a place of her own at the bottom of the ship. No, Tali wasn't all too concerned since she had far bigger things on her mind, mostly what her father had done, all for the sake of reclaiming their home world. The fact that his experiments on the geth had put the Flotilla in danger was almost as troubling as the fact that Tali had sent him the parts to begin with. He had purposely activated the geth and they had gotten out of control, having thought that his experiments in finding some means to destroy them for good would go faster that way. Instead, they had lost an entire ship and all of its crew to the geth that had started to spread and multiply throughout the _Aleri_. Too many lives had been lost, and for what? The only thing that came of it was more sorrow in the long run.

"Ugh, I can't stand mortals crying like babies." Tali immediately jerked her head upward and saw no one, at least at first until a bright white light appeared in front of her. She had to look away until the light disappeared, and when it did, Tali couldn't at first believe what she was seeing. "What? Is the enviro suit too much? For carrying your 'homes' on your back, it is actually pretty comfy."

"Why aren't you wearing a mask?!" That was of course the first thing she'd notice, the mysterious being sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward. The fact he had appeared in a flash of light hadn't struck her as odd in the least. He wasn't used to dealing with people outside of his own universe so he should have known his grand entrance wouldn't have made much of an impact.

"As if I need to tell you why. I'm not quarian, stupid. I just happen to like to dress like a one of your immunodeficient kind, 'bosh'tet'." The mysterious stranger even made air quotes to emphasize his point. "Oh don't be offended; if your people weren't so concerned with taking back a planet that you lost to your own creations, you'd have figured out how to take care of your little immune problem by now. Now, I'm here to send you off to a whole new adventure, think of as a second pilgrimage, one where you actually might get something done for once that doesn't require bending over backwards for a certain 'ghost'. And don't try to shout for help or get that annoying A.I. to try to aid you. They can't hope to compare to the grandeur that is me, nor can they hope to stop me anyway, even if they tried."

"Shut up!" Tali stood and tried to grab the man before her but she never got close as he snapped his fingers and she found herself somehow pinned against the wall a moment later. "What?! What did you do?!"

"Mortals, always wasting time with unimportant questions. What you should be asking is 'what do I plan to do next?' But if you must know, quarian, I simply have you telekinetic-ally frozen against the wall, nothing more. For now, let's just say that you might even enjoy where I plan to drop you off. If it's any consolation to you quarian, if you survive you'll be brought back to this exact moment as if nothing ever happened. Tata!" Tali never got a chance to protest as she disappeared in another intense flash of bright white light when the strange visitor snapped his fingers again.

Standing on the bridge, Dr. Leonard McCoy found himself thinking the same thought for the umpteenth time in the almost six months that his incredibly annoying friend, Jim Kirk, had been captain. _Honestly, why do I even bother coming up here? All I ever do is stand beside Jim, or get into an irritating debate with that pointy-eared-bastard._He thought this while giving a glance in Spock's direction. _Never mind the fact that he's almost always right. Stop moping to yourself Leonard, time to go do something useful._** "**Jim, I'm heading back down to sickbay. I'll catch you later for dinner in the mess."

"Sounds good Bones, have fun with all those physicals, vaccinations and prostate exams." Kirk said the last with a small smirk on his face. Jim was always that way, and everyone that knew him had the same general idea about him. He was irrepressible in the worst ways at times, but considering the fact he had won against Captain Nero and his time traveling dreadnought, he deserved the position he held as one of Starfleet's youngest captains. Still, McCoy found him annoying as hell at times.

_Well, that reminds me, Jim is due for a few booster hypos._This thought put a devilish grin on McCoy's lips. "Oh, I will." McCoy said as he walked to the turbolift, already devising a few ideas on how to stealthily, quite possibly painfully, inoculate his best friend and notoriously difficult patient.

Just as the lift doors slid open, the entire bridge crew was stunned with a blinding white light. As it faded, McCoy was shocked to see a tall middle-aged man with dark hair in an admiral's uniform suddenly standing at the front of the bridge. "Well... if it isn't the brave and gallant crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise!" He boisterously said to his stunned audience.

After shaking off his momentary surprise, Kirk stood up from his chair and looked questioningly at this odd newcomer. "Okay...just who the hell are you and how did you get aboard _my_ship?" One thing Q could say for certain already, Kirk was quick on his feet and just as quick to adapt to the unknown. This little game of his was turning out nicely already, and it hadn't even started yet.

The man slightly frowned before speaking "Mon Capitan, you wound me, there's no need to be so rude. But, you've caught me in a generous mood, so I will happily oblige you. The name's Q and as for how I got here, it's very simple. I'm obscenely powerful. Oh...don't worry, your chief engineer's pitiful little trans-warp beaming idea had nothing to do with it." Q grinned at the shocked look on Kirk's face.

This immediately sent Kirk's mind reeling. _How the hell does he know about that?_Jim thought as he remembered the alternate Spock's assistance in getting Scotty and himself back on board the Enterprise all those months ago. He took a moment to compose himself before he continued talking to the intruder on his bridge.

Spock was quick to walk over and stand just behind Jim so that he could properly examine this intruder while making sure his captain didn't come to any harm.

Jim quickly walked right up to the 'man', he somehow doubted the person in front of him was human. "What is it you want Q? I'll warn you now, if you're planning on putting this ship or her crew in _any _danger-"

"Oh Kirk...why so serious all the time? You really do need to lighten up a bit Mon Capitan, but I can assure you I won't be harming your precious ship and crew. Actually, I have a...unique 'gift' for you, I know you're a connoisseur of some of the finer things in life... like females for instance!" Q snapped his fingers and the bridge crew was temporarily blinded by another flash of light, then shocked to see a dusty grey colored alien, who was obviously female, laying on the deck in front of them.

"You bosh'tet! I'm going to...Wait..." Tali had quickly gotten to her feet the moment she had recovered from being transported as she had, but the moment she noticed that she was without her enviro suit, she was quickly lost to the worst panic attack she could have ever imagined. "What have you done to me?! Oh keelah...this can't be happening!" Being without her suit was a death sentence. She had maybe a couple of hours before she got terminally ill given her non-existent immune system. Just breathing the air had probably sealed her fate by now!

Spock just raised an eyebrow before he addressed Q. "I hereby inform you sir, that you are under arrest for kidnapping, assault, and one count of slave trading."

"As if I'd listen to you Commander Halfbreed. Your laws do not concern me in any way, and besides, you don't have the means to contain me, let alone stop me." Q was quick to reply, rolling his eyes at the half vulcan, half human as he crossed his arms over his chest. Spock said nothing but a slight twitch in his face was all the proof Q needed to see to know he had offended the man. "Oh sorry, did I touch a nerve?"

McCoy was the first to move and, instead of decking this son of bitch 'Q', he instantly ran over to the young looking alien woman who seemed to be absolutely terrified of her current situation. _Can't say that I blame her...what did that bastard do to her?! _She was hyperventilating and the fact she hadn't passed out already was astounding. "Jim! I need to get her to sick bay stat!" McCoy yelled as he quickly removed his upper blue uniform shirt and gently handed it to the woman so she could cover herself.

"Do you really think this is going to help?!" Tali stared dumbfounded at the shirt being offered to her. "Without my enviro suit I'm already dead, which HE TOOK FROM ME!" She pointed at Q before breaking down into hopeless sobs, expecting to feel ill at any moment.

"You heartless bastard! How dare you-" Kirk looked ready to kill Q with his bare hands at seeing the distress he had caused this clearly frightened alien woman. He was a hound dog back in Starfleet Academy...well ok, he still was, but he was also a man of honor and what Q had done here went way beyond what Kirk would ever accept from another being in any capacity.

"Oh shut up. I wouldn't bring you someone if I hadn't taken steps to prevent their early demise. The game wouldn't be nearly so fun otherwise." Q responded, already growing bored with the whole situation he had put together. "Your immune system is fine quarian. I made it able to withstand what this universe could hope to throw at you. Oh she'll figure it out soon enough." Q waved his hand before turning to Kirk. "As for you Capitan, as I said before, I know how you love the finer things in life, so she's a 'gift' from me to you. Enjoy. She's from another universe than your own, as if that wasn't obvious already. I'm sure you'll find her...quite talented" Q leered at Tali for a moment before turning back to Kirk. "in quite a number of different areas. Good luck Mon Capitan! You'll need it..." With that rather ominous statement hanging in the air, Q disappeared in yet another bright flash of white light.

"Oh keelah! I'm going to die... naked. Can't say I saw that coming..." Tali was so terrified, she started to giggle maniacally as a dark skined human woman in red approached her and tried to calm her down.

"Hey... are you alright? Whatever that...that person did to you, you're safe now, I promise." As she tried her best to calm the young alien, several other uniformed humans and aliens began to move toward Tali as well.

"You don't understand. None of you do. He TOOK my ENVIRO SUIT! I'm about as far from ALRIGHT as you can get!" Tali had stopped giggling but her fear had started to turn to rage as the realization started to set in that she wasn't going to survive the rest of the day. She suddenly struck out at the man who was kneeling next to her.

McCoy had to fall backward to avoid having his face smashed in by the deceptively quick punch the young woman threw his way. Kirk and the rest of the crew could tell she had had some form of training from that single punch alone. _She's a fighter, or maybe even a soldier. Things just got more interesting and not in a good way. _Kirk felt his hands curl into fists for what Q had dropped in their laps, and for doing so against this woman's wishes as well, but he had more important things on his mind, such as the safety of his crew.

Before the clearly dangerous alien woman could seriously hurt anyone Spock stepped forward and grabbed her neck. Before Tali could begin to process what had happened, she instantly slumped over into McCoy's arms, unconscious before she hit the deck. "Thank you Spock. You know you creep me out when you do that?" Kirk was quick to add, breathing a lot easier despite that fact, just glad that things had calmed down. "She's all yours Bones. Try to figure out what species she is and if there's anything we can do for her while she's out. If she's going to be our responsibility, I'd rather know what we're dealing with as quickly as possible."

"Dr. McCoy to transporter room three, two to beam directly to sick bay." A moment later, the doctor and the _Enterpise's _newest passenger had been beamed directly to the sick bay. The instant McCoy re-materialized, he immediately laid the unconscious alien down on one of the bio beds before he got to work on trying to identify her species. Chances were she wouldn't be in the databanks, and if that was the case then he'd have to start from scratch and make an entirely new entry, which meant an entire examination from head to toe. He'd need a hand either way.

"Nurse Chapel! I could use some help over here!" The veteran head nurse only paused for a split second as she saw the strange patient Dr. McCoy had just arrived with, then quickly jogged over to the bed. "We'll need to do a full work up on her, make sure to get tissue and blood samples. I don't want her dieing from some simple allergy we didn't take into account." McCoy couldn't help being fascinated as the bed's bio scanners displayed a physiology he had never seen in all his many years as a physician. "Well...you're pretty damn interesting, I'll give you that much."

It didn't take McCoy and Chapel long to piece together why the girl had been so freaked out as the scans came back with some interesting results. Apparently her immune system, until Q had done...whatever he had, had truly been non-existent. There were signs of clear genetic manipulation, but nothing harmful as far as the doctor could tell. If anything, Q had done her a favor, but it still made him angry given what he had put her through all the same. _She's in for a hell of a shock when she wakes up from that pointy-eared bastard's nerve trick._Kirk wasn't the only one that found that tactic more than a little creepy.

"Doctor, it might be best if we keep her isolated from the crew for a while if she was born without the means to live outside her enviro suit until now. Can you even imagine what it will be like for her to wake up realizing she hasn't gotten sick, or worse, yet?" McCoy had since filled in Chapel on the events on the bridge, as crazy as it had been it had sounded worse coming out of his mouth, but all the proof they needed was right there between them.

**Sick Bay, USS Enterprise **

**Six Hours Later...**

"Oh keelah...such a horrible nightmare." Tali mumbled sleepily, her neck feeling a little stiff but otherwise she felt alright. The whole ordeal over her father must have been more traumatizing than she thought if her mind came up with such a strange and frightening dream. Maybe she should have taken Kelly Chambers up on her offer for some 'couch time' after all? _Oh well, time to get up and- _Tali instantly recoiled when her hand brushed against something that definitely didn't feel like the inside of her suit. She jolted fully awake and snapped her blue and metal grey eyes open, seeing that her nightmare was very real as she saw her bare skin. Only a simple hospital-type gown and a blanket were covering her at the moment. "Oh no..." She said to herself, as she stared at her bare hands and arms.

The fact she wasn't sick hadn't dawned on her as she hopped off the bed and immediately backed into someone that had tried to help her. Turning around, Tali recognized the human that had tried to give her his shirt, but she wasn't in a rational state of mind as she fell backward and tried to crawl away as quickly as possible.

"It's alright! It's alright, dammit! Calm down!" McCoy it seemed was having no luck at all getting through to the girl in front of him. She had trapped herself in a corner as the blue shirted man placed his hands, palms out, towards her and backed away a few steps. He remembered that she had at least some form of self defense training and didn't want to find out just how strong she was. But more importantly, his patient was obviously afraid of anyone being near her right now.

"It's alright." McCoy turned around and saw that Chapel had joined his side, and oddly enough, she seemed to be having luck where he hadn't been as he noticed that she seemed to be talking to a scared animal rather than a person. It seemed to be working and McCoy wanted to kick himself for not thinking of that himself. _She's probably running on instinct so it makes sense. Glad one of us thought of it._** "**Take a few deep breaths, you're safe, you're among friends. That's good, just like that." Chapel's soothing voice was working miracles, although she did cast a glare at McCoy for all of his yelling not moments ago before turning her full attention back to their guest. "He's going to go away for now, it'll just be you and me, alright?"

"I get the hint, devil woman." McCoy grumbled but he rapidly did as he was told since he wasn't going to stick around out of pride if it hindered his patient's recovery in the slightest.

"Who...who are you?" Chapel had to lean forward to hear the barely whispered words, but she smiled softly since it was a step in the right direction as far as she was concerned. Chapel wanted to get her talking and focusing on something else other than the fact she was without her enviro suit long enough to get some answers, and perhaps even a better understanding about the alien in front of her. The more they knew, the better they could aid her.

"My name is Christine Chapel. I'm Doctor McCoy's assistant, the CMO onboard this ship... The man who was trying to help you earlier. Who are you?" It was better to start out small and work their way up from there so as not to overwhelm the poor young woman in front of her. So far it seemed to be working as the alien slowly seemed to be calming down further, although Chapel could still see how terrified she was anytime their eyes met. _And what beautiful eyes they are too. It's sad that so pretty a girl as herself had to wear an environmental suit all her life apparently._

"Ta...Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." Chapel waited a few seconds for more but 'Tali' didn't offer anything else, at least for now. That was alright, she had expected as much. As long as progress was made, even if it was just a few baby steps at a time, Chapel would be happy.

"Would you like to come out of the corner now? Maybe you're hungry?" When Tali violently shook her head 'NO' Christine thought of an idea that might help the situation. Slowly standing to her feet, so as not to startle Tali, Chapel hit the comm button on the wall behind her. "Dr. McCoy? Would you mind doing me a favor please?"

"What you do need nurse, how's it going in there?" McCoy sounded concerned and irritated at the same time. Considering he had been booted out of his own sick bay, Chapel could understand his annoyance but now wasn't the time for petty pride or his bruised ego.

"I need you to completely sterilize an EVA suit and bring it here for Tali'Zorah vas Normandy."

That got McCoy's attention since he hadn't honestly expected Chapel to have gotten the girl's name so quickly. "Wait... how did you-" He never got the chance to ask as his nurse interrupted him, much to his growing annoyance at the devil woman who had overthrown his rule, so to speak.

"Not now Dr., the suit, as soon as you can please. I believe it may help improve our patient's mental state if she's able to feel as normal as possible, at least normal by her standards." It made sense and while McCoy still didn't like being overthrown, again his professionalism stepped in and didn't let him delay in fulfilling Chapel's orders to the letter.

**Twenty minutes later...**

It wasn't her environmental suit, but it certainly felt a lot better than being naked. At least she wasn't exposed to any pathogens or bacteria now, although she had still been exposed to the open air for far too long most likely. It wouldn't surprise her in the least if she came down with a fever at any second, but for now she felt fine, and calmer, both McCoy and Chapel had since noticed. "I'm...sorry for attacking you earlier." Tali had needed to say something, anything to break the awkward silence that had fallen in the sick bay.

"Well, I have to say, you're certainly better looking than most of the people who have ever tried to punch me in the face, darlin'." McCoy put on his best southern gentleman's charm to try and get the girl to relax, even a little. Tali couldn't help but let the faintest flicker of a smile grace her face behind the visor to the EVA suit, but it could have easily been a trick of the light from how fast it came and went.

"Oh brother." Chapel couldn't believe what she had just heard as she shook her head at the CMO. "That was a terrible line Doctor McCoy; you're almost as bad as the captain."

"Oh come on Christine, I'm not _that _bad! Well...okay, so maybe that wasn't my best." Little did McCoy know that the slight blush on his face had done more to help calm Tali down than any of his past efforts.

_They're just like the crew of the Normandy, and they are just as tightly bound to each other. _Slowly standing to her feet once again, Tali cocked her head to the side in curiosity at the display of affection between the two who argued like brother and sister. "You remind me of my former crew on the_Normandy_. Quarians often take as their last name from the name of the ship they are accepted on. If you two are any example, then I take it you've been through a great deal together?"

"You're no stranger to starships then. But yeah, you can definitely say that about us." Kirk said from the door to the med bay, having grown curious about the health of their strange guest, and it seemed she was on the mend. "It's good to see you up and about, Tali wasn't it? The name's captain James T Kirk, I thought I'd come down and introduce myself-"

Kirk flinched as McCoy got directly in his face. Apparently he had been looking at the new arrival a little too long for the doctor's taste. "Jim... she's a confused young woman who just went through a traumatic experience. Or to put it in terms even you will understand, she's goddamned gone through hell and back. You so much as look at her in a way I don't like again, and you'll find yourself in a medically induced coma. _Captain._"

"Take it easy Bones, I might be a ladies man, but I'm not about to touch a hair on that poor girl's head. Well... not unless she ever _wants _me to." Kirk gave Tali a friendly little wink just to show he was joking.

"It's alright Doctor. I'm quite capable of defending myself, especially against the likes of him." Tali chuckled at the banter between the crewmembers, finding many similarities between this group and the crew of the Normandy. It made her feel right at home and that, more than anything, made her realize she was among friends if nothing else. "I am grateful for you helping me though. You've treated me far better than most would have; only my friends would have treated me half as well as you have...so far. Quarians...let us say that most of the races where I come from wouldn't have lifted a finger to assist me." It was the sad but hard truth that the Council races wouldn't have bothered given the quarian people's reputation.

"If it makes you feel any more comfortable, Ms. Normandy is it? Being able to help and learn about interesting people like yourself is part of the reason this ship exists in the first place." Jim felt guilty when his comment seemed to have the opposite effect of what he had intended. "I didn't mean to offend you if I did -"

"No no, it's not that, and please call me Tali'Zorah, or just Tali. It's just...most people wouldn't want to associate with a quarian. It's...kind of embarrassing after all I put you through and you're still treating me better than I'm normally used to." Tali was quick to reply, her cheeks turning a shade darker than they were already as she rubbed the back of her suited head in embarrassment.

"Sounds like a crappy universe then if you ask me." Kirk responded, crossing his arms over his chest as he frowned, deep in thought over what he and his crewmates had learned so far.

McCoy frowned at hearing what this girl's life must have been like before that bastard Q had terrified her half to death and somehow sent her here. _Sounds like she was forced to live around people from the damn Dark Ages. Just because she's different makes her an easy mark from the sounds of it, _**"**Can I ask why you've been treated so poorly Tali?"

"Well... that's a little hard to explain actually. I'll just start at the beginning. Nearly three hundred years ago, my people created a form of A.I., called the geth, to serve us. They rebelled shortly after they started asking questions, such as do they have a soul. They had become self aware and our people panicked, having not expected or anticipated their ability to become more than simple machines. In the ensuing war, they took our homeworld and we were forced into exile. Because of our mistake, the other races banned any form of A.I. research as well as dismantled anything that could become self aware, like the geth, while we were forced to live on our ships, unable to find a home that could support our unique physiology. Eventually we spent too long on the move and what little affect our immune systems still had become useless long ago. By that point, we had become a race of outcasts and were treated as second class citizens by the rest of the galaxy."

"Good god woman, three hundred years! Why didn't anyone help your people centuries ago?!" McCoy was astounded that that level of cruelty towards an entire species of people could be allowed by anyone.

"I have to agree, why were the other races so against rendering aid to your people Tali?" Christine asked while Kirk remained silent, which was a very rare thing for him on most occasions since he lived to talk, except when he was analyzing a situation or in this case, another race's abject abandonment of of an entire species.

Tali had since looked down at the floor since it wasn't an easy topic to talk about. Even when she was around the crew of the _Normandy_, the people she had come to call a second family, it hadn't been easy for her. "It was the punishment the majority of my universe's species saw fit to give us for putting the rest of the galaxy at risk. The geth never attacked, but by the time we figured out that they weren't interested in conquering the rest of the universe, the galaxy at large had long since labeled us as the outcasts we have since remained."

No one spoke for several moments as the horror of what Tali had just told them fully sunk in. To Starfleet officers, sworn to help any being in need, what had happened, what had been _allowed_to happen to Tali's race was one of the greatest crimes imaginable. They may have made a mistake, but that didn't justify the sentence which had been imposed on them by the galaxy at large.

"It's inexcusable behavior to subject an entire species to the kind of treatment yours has been given Ms. Zorah. I don't care what the reason was behind the decision since it seems to me it was a truly honest mistake, and not malicious intent, that drove your people off your homeworld. Let me show you something." Kirk motioned for Tali to move closer to a screen as he pressed a few buttons to activate the terminal he stood in front of a moment later, with the quarian on his right side.

Displayed on the screen a few seconds later was the charter for the United Federation of Planets. The very first section spoke of one of the core principles of the Federation, that every member was responsible for the safety and well being of other alien cultures and their civilizations. While it was clear to Tali that it was more of a non-interference policy, she saw that there were circumstances that allowed these people to interfere if certain situations arose. "Your people would most likely have been classified as an advanced race, and as such, we could have actively tried to help since you had discovered space travel, more specifically FTL or warp drives. A.I. research is pretty advanced technology, so it's reasonable to assume that you had reached for the stars before then, am I right?" Tali nodded since it was true, just as Kirk had suspected. "So, to put it simply, if we were ever able to make it to your universe Tali, I'd be more than happy to cause a few problems for the authoritarian assholes on your people's behalf."

She had to ask the question, and from what they had heard so far, none of them could blame Tali for wanting to know why he would. Kirk chuckled but grew serious as he looked at the girl in front of him without any trace of his usual lecherous thoughts anywhere present on his face, much to McCoy's relief. "Because Tali, as surprising as it might seem to some of my fellow crew that know me oh so well, I actually do believe in what Starfleet represents and what they do out here. What's been done to your species is one of the worst crimes in history and as such, under our own rules and directives, those in charge back where you come from should have been taken down a couple notches if not outright thrown out on their asses. If nothing else, the Federation and her allies would have done something, anything to see the quarian people treated with a lot more dignity than they have been so far."

"Unfortunately we don't have a means to travel across realities though." McCoy was quick to add in, but that didn't necessarily bother Tali since the intent was there all the same. She didn't doubt for a moment that this young captain would do anything less than what he had promised if they ever did find a way to her version of reality. He immediately reminded Tali of Commander Shepard in that regard. Both never made a promise and didn't see it through. While her Commander could have snapped Kirk like a twig, she didn't doubt that James was just as stubborn as Shepard in his own way.

"That is assuming Captain, that she is telling us the whole truth. It is illogical to risk any form of conflict with an entire universe we only have one point of view upon." Spock had since joined the group, and while Kirk sighed and looked over his shoulder at the man that was supposed to be one of his closest friends, he still didn't always agree with his way of handling things. Even so, Spock had a point, as much as James didn't want to agree with him.

Before Tali could try to explain to the pointy eared individual that she was telling the truth, Spock held up a hand to stop her before she could begin. "I am not saying that you're lying Ms. Zorah, but it _is _illogical to do anything without more information and a means to confirm its validity as well. And as we have confirmed from this Q's mysterious abilities, you are not of this reality and so it is impossible for us to prove anything you've said, save for one possible avenue."

"Oh no. Not a chance in hell. You are not mind melding with her ya pointy-eared bastard. You'd have to get that helmet off of her and considering she had no immune system up until very recently, I wish you the best of luck on doing that." McCoy was quick to intervene but Spock had no intention of forcing the issue.

"If... if you can't trust me without knowing the whole truth, I will do whatever you need me to do to prove-" Nurse Chapel held up her hand to stop Tali before she could even finish that sentence.

"No one is doing anything until she's had a chance to rest and get acclimatized to everything. Mr. Spock, I understand your concern, but I highly doubt she is in any state to try to fabricate anything so intricate as the story she's told us so far. As soon as _she _is ready, I am sure Ms. Zorah would be willing to let you examine her memories." Chapel had since taken a position beside McCoy who had put himself between Tali, Spock, and Kirk. Tali meanwhile didn't quite know what to do and besides that, she was having a hard time gathering her wits enough to decide on a clear course of action anyway. There was too much going on around her and she hadn't had nearly enough time to adjust to everything.

"I _can _speak for myself, you stupid bosh'tets!" Tali had finally had enough of these people talking _about_her rather than _to_her. Glaring at each of them in turn, except at Captain Kirk who had at least been trying to speak to her directly, she took a few deep breaths and sighed, forcing herself to calm down. "Sorry...I shouldn't have...Can we talk about this when I'm not ready to faint from all the excitement and adrenaline I've been running on since this mess started?"

"You heard the lady guys, let's let her get settled before we drive her nuts. Come on Spock, you can glare at me all you like on the way back to the bridge, but it isn't happening." Kirk knew Spock was just concerned even if he had a very hard time actually showing it, but Jim wasn't willing to traumatize the quarian any further than she had been already. Before he left with his friend though, he motioned for McCoy for a quick little chat. "Keep me updated on her progress Bones. And if you or Chapel can convince her she doesn't need the suit anymore, all the better. Don't give me that look Bones, it's not for the reason you're obviously thinking of. Besides, I'd rather not be in a medically induced coma thank you very much."

An irritated Spock, well as irritated as possible for a half vulcan, and a smirking Kirk quickly left sick bay to attend to other matters, which left Leonard and Christine to tend to Tali, which she was quite thankful for as she slumped against the medical bed beside her. "Oh keelah, today has been far more strange than anything I've ever had to endure before. But...I...I promise I will find some way to repay your crew for your incredible kindness towards me. "

"It's really not that incredible Ms. Zorah, at least not by our standards anyway." McCoy replied, but he still offered a warm smile since he didn't doubt her sincerity in the least. Spock was wrong to assume there was any way she'd put them in harm's way. She just didn't seem to have a mean bone in her body. "Still, you don't have to do anything to repay us Tali. You just take it easy and we'll take care of the rest until you're ready to venture out into the non-essential areas onboard, unless the captain can find a place for you after you've gotten past the pointy-eared bastard anyway."

"Some rest sounds like a very good idea right now. Umm... is there a convenient place I could lay down for a while, I don't want to be a bother." Tali suddenly realized she could barely keep her eyes open. This had been the most exhausting day of her life, and it was quickly catching up to her.

"I doubt you could be a bother to anyone Ms. Zorah. Please follow me." Chapel said, having already taken steps to have a place scrubbed down and sterilized for the quarian more to comfort her rather than any real need for her to worry about infections anymore. Baby steps were needed even though they had made some good progress today already. Before they got to the room that had been set aside for her, Chapel did stop them in the hallway for a moment. "I know that you've lived in an enviro suit all your life, but whatever that being, Q, did to you, you truly do not need to wear one anymore because of it." Chapel saw that the girl had started wringing her hands together in an obvious nervous gesture. "In your own time...Tali. I know it can't be easy to even consider, but if there was a chance, would you not want to take it?"

"I... I had someone special, where I'm from. I hadn't even considered the possibility of ever leaving my suit for...certain reasons...before I met him." Tali was clearly embarrassed, so Chapel decided to let the matter drop, for the moment at least.

"These are your personal quarters, engineering has set up a small decontamination chamber for your needs, but I have a feeling once you get used to life outside the suit, you will not use it." Tali doubted that but Chapel was determined to make her stay as comfortable as possible, and the EVA suit she had on was not meant for long term use as her old enviro suit most likely had been used for. Besides, the EVA suits were used in emergencies most of the time, and seeing someone wandering around the ship with one on would probably raise a lot of questions until word got around of their newest arrival. Chapel had already noticed how Tali instantly perked up when she had mentioned the engineering department. "I'm guessing you're an engineer?"

"Keelah, you better believe it. Give me a soldering gun, a circuit board, some element zero, and I could get a toaster to make precision jumps." Chapel instantly thought of the perfect person to introduce Tali to next, after she received some much needed rest, and where she could potentially be of the most help onboard the Enterprise, if Tali was half as skilled as she made herself out to be. It would be good for the girl's morale to make her feel that she belonged rather than a hindrance or just wasting resources by not giving something back. Chapel had long since gotten the impression that life where Tali had come from meant that everyone had to pull their own weight and contribute to the species. She wasn't far off the mark either.

"If you get hungry, please feel free to use the replicator installed in your room. Just ask the computer for whatever you would like to eat; it's already programmed with safe food choices since yours isn't the only species that ingests dextro based foods. Try and get some rest Tali; I'll have a little surprise waiting for you in the morning." Chapel couldn't help but smile as Tali tilted her head in curiosity before the quarian thanked her again before entering the living area behind her while Chapel went off to try to set things up for her patient come the morning. She had a feeling Captain Kirk would approve, and even Spock might, provided Tali was under light guard of course until her story could be confirmed anyway.

**Main Engineering**

**The Next Morning...**

"Wait! Lass ye canna just...what's this then?! You've improved the secondary fusion generator's power output?! Are ya a genius or just lucky?" Scotty wouldn't complain to the first in the least, but luck would only get someone so far before it ran out, but considering how quickly this newcomer had adjusted the system, he doubted there was any luck involved here. "Ya sure you weren't always in Starfleet there lassy?"

Tali grinned behind her transparent visor, not used to people actually being able to see her face as she stifled a yawn as best as she could. She had spent most of her time last night studying anything she could get her hands on related to engineering from the ship's main databanks before falling asleep at her desk. While she was sure the kind nurse and doctor who had been so concerned for her would not be happy about that if they ever found out, she hadn't been able to stop reading once she started. "I...read as much as I could last night about your ship's engineering technologies when Doctor McCoy and his assistant insisted that I rest instead." Tali hoped that Scotty couldn't see how her cheeks had turned a shade darker from admitting she had gone against the doctor's orders, but he seemed far more excited about how quickly she had picked up what she had already.

"Ye learned the basic principles of starship engineering in nay more than one night?! It takes years of study lass, I'm impressed!" The Scotsmen was positively beaming at her as a wide smile spread across his face. "I don't know how ye got here but I really don't care lass. If the Capn' doesn't approve you for work down here I'll eat the shirt off mae back."

"I've been around ship drives and engines for most of my life. The physics are somewhat different but they're generally the same." Tali wrung her hands and chuckled in embarrassment at such open praise. It really hadn't been that hard once she had gotten the basics down, but she still planned to go over more of their technology as soon as she got the chance.

"Well... it certainly shows lassie, you're lightyears ahead of any cadet fresh out of the Academy and most of the senior staff to boot. What's your name lass? I'll need to know, if I'm to sing your praises properly, won't I?" Now Tali was sure that the smiling man in front of her could see her deep blush. "Ah, no need to be like that lass. Let me start ye off shall I? The name's Montgomery Scott, at your service. But please call me Scotty, everyone else does."

"My name is Tali'Zorah vas Normandy... Sco-tty. Just call me Tali please." She had a little trouble with the pronunciation of the man's name, but he didn't seem offended which made her relax when she realized he found it humorous more than anything.

"Ah lass, I don't think I've ever had someone have any trouble with mae wee name before. Feel free to call me Montgomery, but if ye nay can say that either, Monty will do just as well, alright Ta-li?" Tali couldn't help but to laugh as 'Monty' purposely mispronounced her name. This man would be real easy to get along with it seemed, and his strange way of speaking intrigued the quarian quite a bit, almost as much as the _Enterprise's _engineering deck itself.

The technology which surrounded her was absolutely amazing, this ship alone had the power of at least dozen dreadnoughts in the fleets she was used to studying back home. All of it packed into a vessel the size of a heavy cruiser. The only thing that bugged her was the design of the ship itself. They made themselves a pretty big target with the saucer disk on top. _What crazy bosh'tet came up with the stupid idea to put the bridge in such an easy to hit location?! _If she ever got her hands on the person or persons that had thought their current ship design was a good way to go then she'd give them a piece of her mind. _Might as well paint a giant bullseye on top that says 'Shoot here!'. Maybe I could draw up ship design plans in my spare time, then hand them to the Captain and see what he says? If I am to be stuck here I might as well do something productive for these people._

"Um... hello? I am wery sorry to bother you Mr. Scott, but there seems to be problem. I'm getting an increased power varning in fusion weactor number two, and it seems that the output has jumped considerably. You vill need to shut it down if there has been a power surge, and diagnos- "

"Ah don' get your panties in a twist Chekov. There's nay a problem, but actually quite an improvement. We have a brilliant new friend to thank for that. Ms. Tali'Zorah is a mechanical genius, mate. And Captain, if you're listenin' in, I'd highly recommend lettin' her work with ma teams sir."

**The Bridge**

"Lt. Chapel's idea no doubt Captain." Kirk had to nod at Spock's observation since it seemed like something McCoy's assistant would have done. "Might I suggest we get her out of engineering before-"

"Relax Spock. If she had wanted to cause us trouble, I'm sure she'd have done it by now. If it makes her happy I say let her stay down there with Scotty. _More_importantly, she seems to make Scotty happy, so let's give her the opportunity to show off a bit for us. It'll do both of them some good. You could try and recite the rulebook at me Spock, but we both know how that's going to end." James smirked and Spock gave the slightest of twitches to his lips which was the only sign Kirk needed to know that the vulcan had just hinted at a smile.

"Can't you ever do anything by the book, just once?" Uhara asked from her post, her voice dripping with sarcasm, but she was smiling wide enough for herself and Spock. She hadn't always liked Kirk, but since Nero's attack and subsequent defeat, she respected the man a great deal. "If it makes you feel better Commander Spock, maybe we can have a light security presence down in engineering until her trust is earned?"

"That is...highly logical Lt., and a wise precaution. Captain if I may-" Kirk had already raised his hand to silence Spock.

"Sure Commander, whatever makes you...feel better." Jim said the last part as he smirked in Uhura's direction. The communications officer rolled her eyes at the captain but didn't say anything as he hit a button on his command chair. "Captain to security, send down two of our boys to engineering. Tell them they should think of themselves more as tour guides for our guest since I seriously doubt she'll give them any trouble whatsoever. Still, better safe than sorry." Even he could agree that it was probably better to err on the side of caution from time to time.

**Main Engineering**

**Five minutes later...**

"The captain has got to be screwing with us... _that's_who we're supposed to be guarding?" Ericson poked his partner, Roberts, in the left shoulder to get the man's attention. "I mean, she doesn't look like much of a threat. Hell, she's not even half my size."

"Don't underestimate any possible hostile; first rule of security training, remember?" Roberts cast an annoyed glance at Ericson before returning his gaze to the young suited woman in front of him. "But, in this case I'm inclined to agree with you... Hey..." Roberts was alarmed when the girl suddenly started running right at the two of them. " what the hell is she doing?!" Both of them had the wise instinct to pull their phasers, unsure what was going on as they immediately set their weapons to stun. They were so concentrated on the strange woman running towards them that they were unaware that an overstressed structural support above them was beginning to weaken.

"Get back you stupid bosh'tets!" Tali didn't waste time and simply ran into both of them at full speed, tackling them both to the ground just in time to save them all as the support structure collapsed and hit the ground where they had just been standing. Getting to her feet before helping the two security guards, Tali breathed a sigh of relief as they soon realized that everyone was alright. "Get on the comms and tell the Captain it'd be a good idea to go in for repairs at the first opportunity. I don't think that was the only microfracture." She had detected the first one completely by accident when she had been investigating the ship's engineering deck further, and had rightfully suspected there was more.

Years spent on the Flotilla as one of the engineers had taught Tali many things, one of the more important lessons being that when there was one microfracture, there was always more. Overstress an area of the hull or mechanical parts enough and that fracture will slowly spread until eventually parts start falling off or...in worst case scenarios, said overstressed pieces had been known to violently explode.

"Tali? Blast it girl, what was that noise?" Scotty had only then seen the damage and rushed over to the three, breathing a great sigh of relief when he saw that they were ok. "I nay can believe this! I thought that we had repaired all the damage done when we gave Nero and his psychotic band of romulans a good pasting."

Ericson looked at the petite alien before him with admiration, and no small amount of guilt. "She just saved our lives, I ain't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The captain sent us down here...uh...to keep an eye on her Scotty." Tali was a little surprised and even a little hurt by the news, but Ericson waved his hands since he hadn't meant offense. "No no, it's not like that Ms. Zorah. He told us to treat ya fairly and to act more as tour guides than actual guards. The order was more to shut Commander Spock up I'm guessing."

While Tali was still upset that at least some of the crew clearly didn't trust her, she could also understand the need to keep a vessel's crew safe from any possible harm. In that sense, the Captain had only been fulfilling his responsibly to his crew. As much as she didn't like the idea of someone in her head, Tali now had no choice as far as she saw it since Spock had sent these two men down here because of her. They had almost died because of her. _I have to ...as much as it terrifies me, I have to let him try. That means...I have to try to remove the suit, at least the helmet if nothing else._

"I won't put anymore people at risk. Take me to Commander Spock, please." The two men, who moments earlier wouldn't have trusted her in the slightest anywhere near the bridge, let alone the senior officers, didn't hesitate in offering to take her back up to the bridge.

"Yes, ma'am!" Both men simultaneously told her, apparently shocking the young girl in front of them. She hadn't hesitated to save their lives, and stranger or not, no one of ill intent would have done what Tali had without even considering her own safety.

"Hold up lass! I'm coming with ya! If it means one-upping that uptight vulcan Commander of ours, then let me have a front row seat." Scotty had no clue just how much it meant for the engineer to have his presence so close at hand, especially for what she was preparing to do as they soon arrived on the bridge once more. Before this, she would have never considered anything of the sort, except for very brief periods of time with one person and one person alone...but that was then. The situation had changed quite a bit since.

**The Bridge**

**Two minutes later...**

"Why is our..._guest_...on my bridge gentlemen?" Kirk asked, having made sure to put emphasis on that particular word after he had just heard the reports of damage in engineering and was more than a little shocked to see Tali and the security personnel assigned to her standing ten feet away from him. The fact that Tali was glaring at him, and Spock, while two hardened officers behind her couldn't seem to make eye contact with either of them only added to Jim's curiosity. "So, care to clue me in Ms. Zorah?"

"Your bosh'tet of a Commander almost got these men killed, Captain, as did you for sending them down to engineering with his recommendation. Two men almost got killed because of me and they wouldn't have been there if not for the mistrust some of you have towards me! So...I'm obviously going to have to prove to you I'm telling you the truth."

"Ms. Zorah...while I appreciated your eagerness to assuage any doubts I might harbor concerning you, it would be best if this was handled at a later-" Spock had obviously not gotten the hint the first time as Tali got up in his face a moment later, having since all but stomped over towards him with one intent on her mind.

"No. Now. Right here, right now, you arrogant bosh'tet." Was her very clear answer to Spock's hesitation. Kirk raised an eyebrow in silent amusement to see Spock on the defensive, but then his slowly forming smile disappeared when he remembered Bones' less than subtle threat to his health. _My next immuno booster might be my last if I'm not careful._

"Ms. Zorah, if I may, can we at least have Doctor McCoy and Nurse Chapel present? I think the consequences would be rather...unpleasant for me if I were to let you do this without at least one of them present for...health reasons."

"Fine. Let's just get this over with as soon as possible." All the doubt and nervousness he had seen in this young girl was now gone, replaced with an angry and highly determined young woman. _I'm sure glad now I didn't try to do anything stupid. She'd probably hand me my ass on a silver platter. Hopefully only my ass...if I was lucky. _Jim thought to himself as a cold shiver passed through him at the image he had conjured up for himself. As if he didn't have enough people to worry about that could kick his ass or poison him for that matter.

"Um... Bones, Nurse Chapel, would you be so kind as to report to the bridge... _immediately_?" Jim let out an internal sigh of relief as McCoy and Chapel walked out of the turbo lift less than two minutes later. _Oh thank god...maybe I won't end up in a coma or worse now._There was still a chance but at least now it wasn't as likely as Kirk filled the two doctors in on what was going on as quickly as possible so they didn't get the wrong idea. Of course, that still didn't help much.

"Jim...are you insane man?! We're going to have a nice little friendly chat about not screwing with your CMO's patients!" If McCoy was angry with him, then Chapel looked like she wanted to leap across the bridge and beat him with her bare hands. Actually, that was putting the current expression on her face politely. But everyone fell silent when they heard the unmistakable sound of an EVA helmet being unclamped before Tali slowly but surely took it off before letting it drop by her feet.

Chapel forgot her rage at Kirk and Spock since it was clear that it wasn't nearly as easy as it had looked for her to do that of her own volition by the way Tali's body trembled just noticeably. _She's petrified...but she's still without the helmet. This isn't something to be taken lightly for her. I had suspected but...I hadn't realized just what it meant._She could never truly understand, none of them could, but Chapel at least had a much better grasp of Tali's mindset, if nothing else.

With most of the bridge crew glaring at him now, even Kirk, Spock wisely didn't waste any time in bringing to a conclusion this debacle, he logically realized he had caused, as quickly as possible. Even so, Spock wasn't without his understanding as he had also come to the beginning of the same understanding as Chapel that this was clearly not easy for their guest to do in the least as he slowly reached out for the quarian's face with his right hand. He stopped when Tali took a sharp breath inward, but she nodded hesitantly for him to continue and he didn't dally as he became the first person to touch a quarian's face in their own reality.

It was Spock's turn to want to jerk away when the first memory he saw as their minds joined hit him like a phaser blast to the chest. He was sobbing while holding onto the body of his dead father. If only he hadn't listened to him, if only he had been able to stop his father from pursuing this dangerous course of research! "Come on Tali, there's nothing we can do for him now. I'm sorry..." How could he just leave him like this?! Even shaking in grief, his Commander still slowly managed to get him up on his feet again. "Hey, come here." As Shepard hugged him tightly Spock could feel the sobs racking through him.

"What the hell is going on in there?!" Uhura and the rest of the crew could see tears forming in Spock's and Tali's eyes over whatever memory they were being forced to relive at that moment. She knew better than to interrupt, but she still felt the need to pull Spock away from the poor girl. Just as she was about to separate them by force, both let out a gasp of air as Spock ended the meld.

Spock took a moment to compose himself as Uhura wiped the tears from his face. Tali meanwhile had since found Chapel at her side in a heartbeat. "Captain...I...I can completely assure you that Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, formerly of the Neema, is more than trustworthy. She has saved countless lives in her fight across her reality with those she calls a second family, the crew of the _Normandy_." Spock paused for a moment as he looked down at the still sobbing quarian near him. "I apologize for any suffering I have caused you...Tali. Perhaps it is better to use one's 'common sense' from time to time, rather than pure logic; I have failed you in this regard, both you and the Captain in my suspicions of your very nature, a mistake I will not make again."

"Well I hope you're happy you pointy-eared bastard." McCoy all but growled at Spock as he and Chapel gently led Tali out of the bridge, but not before giving one final cold stone glare to both the vulcan and their captain before they left on the turbo lift together. In her current state, Tali had forgotten all about the helmet to the EVA suit.

Scotty was also a bit upset with what had happened and gave Spock a silent glare before heading back down to Engineering. As much as he wanted to stand by Tail's side, he felt that he'd be intruding and would probably be chased away by the two medical professions anyway.

"So...what happened in there Commander Spock?" Kirk softly asked his shaken XO and science officer. He had a feeling he wasn't going to get an answer today, but Jim knew that if he didn't talk now, Uhura would most likely get the truth out of him later when they were alone.

"I would rather not say." Spock told him as he slowly bent down and picked up the forgotten helmet. He had a far better understanding of just what had transpired here today, and he wasn't going to forget it as long as he lived. That and he'd never underestimate the strength Tali'Zorah possessed to have allowed him to examine her mind, given what it would have otherwise entailed if not for Q's interference. "Only Ms. Zorah would have the right to tell you any information you may wish to know Captain. I am afraid that I cannot share any more of Ms. Zorah's thoughts with you without her explicit consent."

"Would that need to be in writing?" Kirk tried to deflate some of the tension in the air but his attempt fell flat on its face as he noticed Spock had looked away towards Uhura, who had since started kissing him again. "Great. If you're gonna do that at least get a room you two." Earning a death glare from Uhura, James knew when to shut up and not continue on that particular line of conversation. "Listen Spock, why don't you two take some time off for the day. I can handle things up here for a few hours." He had meant it as a suggestion and it was gladly accepted since Uhura was the only one that knew with any certainty just how deeply Spock had been affected by whatever he had seen in Tali's mind. Kirk wasn't ignorant on that part either and wanted his second in better shape than he was at the present moment.

After all the progress they had made in such a short time, Chapel had initially feared that Spock's actions might have caused Tali to regress completely. But, much to her and McCoy's great relief, it seemed to have had the opposite effect. Tali was now entirely ignoring the fact that she had nothing to 'protect' her from the outside world and its dangers. On the other hand, she was still very upset from whatever thoughts she and Commander Spock had shared. McCoy, purely out of instinct as a father, had sat down next to the girl when she had crumpled to the floor against a wall in her room. Tali had instantly grabbed onto the surprised man and hadn't let go since.

McCoy quietly tried to get Chapel's attention as he mouthed to her as not to wake up a now sleeping Tali. "What am I supposed to do?!" He didn't want to stay there all night unless he had to, but it seemed Chapel hadn't quite forgiven him for his earlier actions and had other plans in store for him.

Chapel whispered her reply in his ear. "You stay there until she lets you go... no exceptions Doctor... I mean it!" McCoy planned to get her back for this devilry but she left before he could come up with anything, leaving him in the slightly awkward position of having his patient still holding onto him for emotional support.

"Oh hell... it's alright, you're worth it darlin'." McCoy quietly said to Tali as he hugged the sleeping quarian to his side just a little bit closer. Jim would probably never let him hear the end of it if he caught him like this with her after his own warnings towards the captain earlier, but McCoy didn't particularly care at that moment.

_Closing Notes; Vergil1989; Before you yell at us in the reviews, we know we didn't have Sulu appear at all this chapter, but he'll be making an appearance next chapter, promise! We actually...forgot about him by accident lol. 'Goes to hide behind Kirk for protection.'_

"_Hey don't look at me, you had Bones threaten to put me in a coma. Not going to be saving you two from the angry readers anytime soon."_

_Archer83; This was actually the first idea I ever came up with as a fan fic writer, I recently decided to dust it off and give it my best shot. Thanks to Vergil's incredible help I think this has turned out even better than I could have imagined. Hopefully you will have enjoyed reading this as much as we did writing it. Feel free to a leave a review, I always appreciate honest feedback from my readers!_

_Vergil1989; Thanks for stopping by even if you don't leave anything for us to enjoy on our time off. Personally I wouldn't mind a few hours in one of those luxury holo decks...getting a massage from a very sexy alien but that's just me. :D I'd make a very good Kirk...good god shoot me now. :P My allegiance to Star Wars is shifting to Star Trek! 'Insert death wail of your choice here.'_

_Archer83; Before you start a sci-fi fan war, I suggest we stop talking...At least we can all agree Mass Effect is better than anything else..._

_Vergil1989; Good idea lol. And Amen to that brother! Adios folks! Vergil out._


	2. New Beginnings

**A Quarian's Trek: Chapter 2; New Beginnings.**

**USS Enterprise, Tali's Private Quarters**

**Nine Hours Later...**

_Oh this is too good to be true. Yet it is._Jim thought as he quietly watched the young woman sleeping curled up next to his best friend, his mind already coming up with various ways in which to use this against Bones. But just as suddenly he realized how happy McCoy, well happy for him anyway, looked as Jim frowned and quickly left the room without disturbing either of them. _I must be getting old if I didn't at least draw a mustache on Bones' face._

Instead he remembered that he had an appointment to keep with the doctor, so Kirk decided to head to medical and 'wait' there for Bones. When he arrived a few minutes later however, he heard Chapel recording her morning report and decided to wait until she was done before interrupting her. Besides, he figured it'd make up for his not poking fun at his old friend when he had the chance if he caught Chapel saying something embarrassing when she thought no one was listening.

"Lt. Christine Chapel, medical log. Stardate, god help me I can never remember the damned date. Oh well. The Enterprise's newest member has made marked improvement in her short stay so far. While I wouldn't recommend a vulcan mind meld as part of a patient's treatment, Commander Spock's ill advised idea has actually had a positive effect on Ms. Zorah. For someone who was forced to live in an environmental suit her entire life, Tali is making a remarkably fast recovery after serious mental and physical trauma." Taking a moment to take a drink of her morning coffee no doubt, Kirk was starting to get a little impatient for the good stuff. All that Chapel had said he had figured out for himself after seeing how peaceful Tali had looked, and still without the helmet no less. If that wasn't progress, Jim didn't know what was.

"Mmm...I plan on slowly continuing Tali's exposure to normal, for us anyway, life. My only real concern is that we will push her too fast, too hard. Even though she is still in a very fragile mental state, fortunately Tali seems to have bonded with Dr. McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott, and myself. Perhaps it might even be wise to say she has bonded with Jim as well, but since he's listening at the door I don't want to give him a bigger head." Chapel smirked as she heard the captain's sharp intake of breath at being found out.

"You scare me when you do that Chapel, but I'm sure you know that." Kirk quickly recovered and swaggered over to the nurse. "But it's good to hear that Tali is making progress, as a matter of fact, I just-" Jim realized what he'd been about to say and quickly shut up a second too late.

"You just what, _sir_? I'm waiting." Christine had a feeling she wasn't going to like whatever Kirk had been up to, knowing the trouble he usually got himself and others into. The one time he had done the right thing, the one time he would have appreciated a friendly ear, and Chapel probably wouldn't be willing to listen to his side of the story, go figure.

"I um... just got back from the mess. Gotta go, see you later Lt., keep me updated!" Kirk was only a split second away from a clean escape when a hand latched onto his arm. He knew he was in trouble when Chapel spun him around to face her, the look on her face was more terrifying than the one he had seen on Nero's.

"What. Did. You. Do. _Sir?_**" **Chapel had instantly realized Kirk was hiding something, and it had to be about her new patient, why else would he positively try to flee from her presence? "I do know how to administer injections almost as well as Dr. McCoy, and by well, I mean painfully." Chapel couldn't remember ever seeing the captain sweat so profusely before, even in the gym.

"I ah... may have checked on Tali...and saw that Bones was with her. I guess cuddling would be the proper term?" The new grin on Jim's face died a quick and sudden death as Chapel glared at him. _Oh crap... There's no way this is going to end well...and I can't cheat my way out of it this time._Spock's little 'fear' test was the only time that Jim had cheated in his life, and really it had been fair game since that test had been rigged anyway so that no one could ever complete it. This however was a whole other ball game.

"Tell me you didn't embarrass them...so help me...if you upset Tali in _any _way..." Kirk found himself quickly backed up against a wall as Christine pressed toward him. Any other day he might have actually enjoyed this, not now though since this was absolutely terrifying. "Let me remind you that taking any action harmful to a patient's health on a starship is grounds for loss of command of said ship, _Captain. _Now tell me _exactly _what happened."

"Well first I got up..." Seeing that his wise ass brand of humor was only going to make things worse, Jim dropped the act. "I just went to check on her, and found them sleeping on the floor, their backs to the wall. That's it, I swear on a pile of Bible datapads, then I left and headed here. May I go now nurse? Might be a little awkward if anyone sees us out in the corridor like this." When Chapel didn't relent he quickly added more. "I promise I'll never go near her again without asking you or Bones first, okay? Unless she comes to me anyway..." Kirk was quick on his feet but not quick enough as Chapel got him by his ear and pulled him back into sick bay. "Crap! I was kidding!"

"Oh hell, what did you do this time Jim?" McCoy gaped at the two of them from the door. While he looked pissed, a slight hint of a grin pulled at the corner of his mouth as Chapel let go of Kirk and quickly distanced herself from him.

"Nothing! Um... thank you for the ear exam Nurse Chapel, it's much better now. Gotta go do... captain stuff." Jim made a hasty retreat before McCoy or Chapel could do anything else to him, having forgotten about his appointment with Bones entirely by this point. He had a long day today, given the fact they were putting in for repairs at the nearest starbase upon Scotty's recommendation as well as their new engineer, if Jim had anything to say about it anyway.

"Huh... Christine ya left the log recorder on again, I told you before I hate having to skim through these things to get past the damn extra parts. Wait... where the hell..." Chapel almost burst out laughing as McCoy suddenly looked like he had lost something important and darted back out into the corridor. She was thankful for his quick departure however, as she edited out the damning parts of her log. She'd given Kirk enough warning, having McCoy angry with him as well would be overkill.

Kirk meanwhile hadn't gotten far when he saw that Tali was looking around his ship, seemingly in awe if the way she was staring intently at everything she could was anything to go by. And apparently she had forgotten her breakfast which was on a nearby control panel behind her. "You know Bones' would have my head if you didn't finish that?" Tali jumped and spun on her heel, having been lost in her examination of the ship's systems. _Damn, she has pretty eyes! Quick, think of something else! __Too bad that suit is in the way... CRAP! _**"**Eh...we'll be putting in a few days earlier than we had planned at one of our starbases out in these parts Ms. Zorah. You might want to check out the station, and there's a lovely little resort on the nearby planet, Risa, I think it's called."

"Hello Captain... Are you...asking me to permanently leave the ship?" Kirk felt like an ass as soon as the words were out of the woman's mouth. He hadn't meant it as such, but apparently she was more sensitive than he had originally thought as she looked torn between shouting and crying.

"Whoa, I didn't mean it that way in the least Tali. It's because of you and Scotty that we even know that we needed those repairs, and I thought you could use some shore leave like the rest of the crew is all." James was quick to reassure the quarian in front of him, glad to see that she was starting to calm down after he had said his piece.

"Oh...sorry. Thank you for offering, but would it be alright if I just stayed here for now? Your ship is absolutely incredible!" Kirk had to chuckle at her excitement since she oddly enough reminded him of a kid in a candy store in a way. Still, he was with Bones and Chapel in that she needed to get out and about, but at her own pace. He was however willing to give her a push if he felt it was needed, unlike the docs who wanted to take things one step at a time.

"I'll let ya explore the ship all you like, but you need to do me a favor in return Tali. I want you to check out the station, if not the planet itself, before we leave. I'm in agreement with the docs so if I push you out the door later, you'll know why." Jim couldn't help smiling as Tali nearly jumped with glee as he handed her the discarded breakfast tray she had forgotten about. "And just so we're clear, I won't step in if you don't start taking care of yourself and the docs get their hands on you. Eat, drink, and be merry already. That's an order Tali." Kirk had said the last part jokingly, but Tali seemed to take his words very seriously.

"Yes Captain! Whatever you say." She had a huge smile on her face but Jim still couldn't shake the feeling there was something he was missing. Maybe he'd ask Spock about it later. _Oh crap!_He had forgotten that his 'old pal' Spock wouldn't tell him anything about what he had 'seen' in Tali's head without her very clearly given permission, but Kirk left it alone since he didn't want to upset her more than she had been already. Besides, one look at her beaming face and Jim just didn't have it in him to ask.

Instead, he smirked and nodded his approval as she took a seat at the computer terminal she had originally left her food on and started to dig in. "Good to hear Ms. Zorah. I'll leave you to it since as surprising as it might be to some people, I actually do have a job to do around here, and it's one I actually like."

"Hey, wait a moment please!. I never got to ask before but aren't you a little young to be a captain?" Tali had once again abandoned her food in favor of curiosity. James had to shake his head at her but he let it go as he decided to give her at least something to mull over.

"It's a long story Ms. Zorah, maybe you can get Bo- Dr. McCoy to tell it to you sometime." With a wink Jim quickly headed for the bridge. Today had already gone badly enough, he didn't need Spock on his back for being late for alpha shift on top of everything else. Besides, he didn't want to start reminiscing about old times if it meant she didn't take care of herself during his storytelling by not doing something as simple as eating. Besides, it wasn't just his story to tell anyway.

Tali sighed but at least now she had a reason to talk to McCoy other than for any health concerns of hers. Finishing her breakfast which had actually tasted pretty good since it hadn't come in a tube for once, Tali sighed and wondered what she could do now. Maybe a shower would be good? An actual shower...there was something she hadn't considered since leaving the Flotilla once again. Despite what it stirred up to even think about the life she had been pulled out of, Tali was still able to smile even though she missed the _Normandy _and everyone there. She even missed that bosh'tet Cerberus cheerleader, Miranda Lawson, although she'd never admit that to the genetically modified woman.

**Ten minutes later...**

A certain helmsmen was glad to be back from the Risan botany symposium. It had definitely been fun, but it was good to be home. It was only when he turned the corner and got to his quarters that he realized something was amiss. _What the hell, who put an airlock in my room? Good one Scotty... can't say I saw that one coming...Is that an EVA suit by the bathroom?_

"Is someone in there?" The _Enterprise _had just docked about seven minutes ago and Sulu had wanted to unpack his few belongings he had taken with him before reporting for duty. Instead it seemed he was the last to be informed that someone had taken up residence in his old quarters. That in itself wasn't a big deal since a room was a room, but it'd have been nice to be told about it in advance.

He was about to leave to try to figure out where he'd be staying until whoever had been allowed to take over his former living area had since stepped out of the bathroom. It took his brain several long seconds to realize that the occupant hadn't even thought to put a robe on.

"Oh keelah..." Tali couldn't think of anything else to say as she quickly turned around and disappeared back into the bathroom, but she had to skid to a halt to grab her suit since in her rush to hide she had forgotten it on her first pass.

"Oh...I'm so sorry! I'll just..." An extremely embarrassed Sulu instantly started heading for the exit. "Sorry if I scared you, I'll just get out of here." _Someone is going to pay for this...dearly. _Before he could get far though, Tali had since returned, her dark cheeks still a shade of black that they hadn't ever been before, but at least she was dressed now as she called out to the man's back.

"Wait...I didn't know that this room was occupied, I should be the one be leave." She felt like such a stupid bosh'tet! She should have known that there would have been people returning to the ship if they were supposed to dock at a station, or starbase or whatever Kirk had called it! She was going to make him pay for this embarrassing situation! She forced herself to calm down though since it wasn't this young man's fault and he didn't deserve her rage at being put in such an embarrassing and compromising position.

"No, no... it's fine. Well, ah enjoy your stay aboard the _Enterprise_um..." It was only then that he realized he didn't even know her name, and after another moment's thought, Sulu also realized he had never seen an alien like her before and he felt at a loss as to how to salvage this already awkward situation before it got any worse.

Tali quickly stuck her hand out, desperately trying to fix this awkward situation. "Please, call me Tali. I can't tell you how nice your crewmates have been to me since I...arrived on this ship."

Sulu gratefully shook her hand since anything was better than thinking about just how mortified he was right then. "It's very nice to meet you Tali, I only wish we could have met...well almost any other way actually." Just exactly how harsh that sounded hit Sulu like a sledgehammer. "Not that I'm saying you aren't attractive or anything!" Hanging his head in shame, Sulu decided it was best to get out of the room as fast as possible at this point. "I'm just gonna stop talking now and leave you alone."

Tali had to put a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter since it felt better than being embarrassed as much as he obviously was. "It's alright, and you never told me your name. Isn't it customary for humans to at least introduce yourself before departing? You have my name after all."

"It's Hikaru Sulu." He quickly said over his shoulder, getting away from the room as fast as his legs could carry him. _Well that definitely covers the 'seeking out new life' part of the ship's motto._He was going to have a very long talk with James Kirk about this, but despite his bad mood born of such abject embarrassment on both of their parts, Sulu couldn't help but smile a little since Tali was definitely unique and that made her interesting. Even if she wasn't of a species he hadn't seen before, there was something about her that intrigued the young officer to no end.

"Hey Sulu, good to see you again. Hey... you didn't happen to see a girl running around on this deck in an EVA suit did you? Most likely staring at everything and anything?" Only then did Leonard notice the strange look and the still disappearing blush on Sulu's face. It made the doctor quite puzzled since he hadn't expected much could throw the helmsman off.

"If you mean the grey skinned young woman that was...taking a shower when I blundered into-" Before Sulu could say another word, McCoy had thrown him against a wall. The sudden assault left him unprepared and unable to come up with a proper defense, and since he was very skilled in close quarters combat, specifically fencing, Sulu wouldn't have had much trouble if not for the surprise still making him slow on the said, Sulu didn't have a death wish and wasn't about to fight with the doctor in any case. "I mean...what woman?"

"You just stay right there...I'll be right back." Before McCoy could go anywhere however, he turned around and saw Tali standing in the hallway, looking upset, at him rather than Sulu. No, not upset if the ice cold glare from her metallic blue grey eyes was anything to go by. "I...uh..." He was understandably struck speechless since he hadn't expected this at all.

"Let. Him. Go." McCoy didn't hesitate to follow Tali's very explicit yet simple order as he let Sulu go before listening to what his patient had to say. "Mr. Sulu apparently was using my current quarters before I arrived here. I don't blame him for thinking they were still his. It was an embarrassing, but honest mistake. I appreciate your concern, but I'm not as fragile as I was when I first got here, so I'd appreciate it greatly if you backed off. Now."

Leonard quickly backed away from the now thoroughly confused Sulu. "I ah... I might have overreacted just a little kid, sorry. Welcome back. As you can probably tell, you missed a few things lately." That was the understatement of the century but it was the truth. Sulu had a lot of questions, and he had a feeling some of them would be hard to swallow.

"I take it that Tali is still under your care Doc?" Trying to help McCoy save some face, Sulu turned to the young quarian. "Well I can tell you one thing for sure Tali, you couldn't ask for a better doctor. Our CMO here is one of Starfleet's finest." Sulu gave Bones a parting slap on the shoulder as he headed for the quartermaster's office, it'd be nice to have _somewhere_to at least get _some _rest before his next shift. Not to mention finding out where his stuff went now that he was out of a room.

Tali meanwhile had since calmed and despite her still ingrained fear of every breath potentially making her sick, she still found it in her to pull McCoy into an awkward hug given the EVA suit she still wore. "I really do appreciate your concern since very few people have ever stood up for me."

"Um... I'm sure Christine would kill me for mentioning this but, you know you don't have to wear the suit right? I mean without the helmet, it's kinda pointless darlin'."

"Oh keelah, I completely forgot. I must have left it on the bridge yesterday." After thinking about it for a second though, Tali gasped as she realized something else. "Uh...I never thought about this before but...are there any clothing stores onboard the station? I...don't have anything else but this suit to my name. Not that I'm complaining, but if you could maybe loan me some credits or whatever you use for-"

"Don't go worrying now Tali since I don't spend a damn cred, well except child support. Nevermind, the point is I have plenty of credits saved up, and we're going to get you some decent clothing to wear. But um, Chapel might have a better eye for that than me."

"Would... would it be possible for both of you to go with me? I know, I'm being silly. I shouldn't be afraid of a simple space station, but...when you've spent as long as I have with a layer of clothing severing you from the world around you..." She caught herself wringing her hands which was a clear sign she was nervous and rambling again, but she couldn't help herself.

McCoy gently put his hands on her shoulders before the girl could continue. "You got it Tali, just say when. Besides, Christine's always on my ass to get off the ship once in awhile anyway." He couldn't help the small and gentle smile that formed on his face, especially when he remembered the many times Christine had threatened to push him out the airlock if it meant him getting off the ship before he grew older than dirt.

"Um...would now be a good time? I don't want to bother either of you if you're busy..." Seeing the hopeful look in her eyes, there wasn't a snowball's chance in Hell that Leonard could say no to Tali.

"One second." Bones walked over to a nearby wall console. "McCoy to Captain Kirk, mind if I take my newest patient off the ship for a while? I'm thinking Nurse Chapel will probably be joining us and-" He never got the chance to finish as Jim cheerfully replied over the comms.

"Stop talking Bones and get your ass off my ship already. Oh, permission granted, return to the ship in a timely fashion etc. etc. Have to sound official sometime right?" Bones rolled his eyes as he turned back to Tali who was barely able to suppress her laughter at Jim's constant disregard for protocol and procedure. Despite this, she grew serious a moment later.

"Does he ever take his job as captain seriously?" Tali found the young captain to be incredibly odd and confusing. To a quarian there was no position with more respect or dignity than that of a ship's captain. This Kirk seemed to treat it like one big game. Even Shepard was usually more serious, _usually_.

To Tali's surprise, McCoy nodded since James could take his position quite seriously when it mattered. "He might not seem like it Tali, but Jim, as he likes to be called when he's not acting as the captain, is the side of him that treats everything like one big game. When it matters though, when the situation calls for propriety and a strong leader, James T. Kirk is the side of him that comes to the front. That's the side I sometimes wish was present more than it is, but on the other hand he wouldn't be who he is if that was the case. It's the mixture of the two that makes him both so easy to follow as well as makes him such a damned annoyance."

So she just hadn't seen the more serious side of him then? Tali found it a little confusing to consider that there was more than one side to Kirk as McCoy said, but maybe she just hadn't known him long enough to see the same thing that these people did? "Just out of curiosity, what does the T stand for?" She had needed to change the subject since she had a lot on her mind as it were anyway.

"Total-pain-in-the-ass." Leonard felt a damn smile coming on as Tali giggled loudly. "Yeah laugh it up, I'm a doctor, not a comedian. Let's go find Chapel so we can get you something to wear that doesn't remind me of how deadly space is." Tali couldn't help but giggle again as they made their way back to the sick bay.

"Are you sure you're not a comedian? You certainly have a talent for it." McCoy could only shake his head at his temporary charge while she walked over to Chapel. "Nurse Chapel, would you care to go shopping with us, I mean if you have the time-"

Chapel quickly held up her hand to silence Tali. "Okay two things, one; call me Christine from now on Tali. And two; you had me at 'shopping', of course I'd like to come with you." Christine quickly told the other medical personnel where she and McCoy were headed, and to contact them immediately if anything important came up.

**Twenty minutes later...**

"Do you have room for one more?" Uhura asked as she caught up with Christine, McCoy, and Tali before they got to the airlock that was against the _Enterprise's _hull.

"By all means, please come with us! I could use another woman's fashion opinion anyway. Tali here is going to be getting herself a decent wardrobe." As Christine spoke McCoy did his best not to outwardly cringe at the idea of being stuck clothes shopping with three women for god knew how long.

As if reading his mind, Uhura smirked at McCoy before speaking once again. "Most guys wouldn't mind having three women on their arm." She could only grin a little wider when McCoy fell for the trap she had set for him. He couldn't have refused in any way without sounding rude to at least one of them.

"Why, I'd be happy to escort you fine ladies today!" The words were out of McCoy's mouth before he could snatch them back. _Oh God! Why did I say that?! I hate clothes shopping! _The instant Tali actually wrapped a bare right hand around McCoy's left though, he forgot all about his dislike of shopping. She looked nervous as hell, but one look at her face told Bones that she was happy he had agreed to come along.

"Tali...are you sure you want to do this?" Uhura asked, having lost all trace of her humor a moment ago given that she could just as easily see how nervous the young woman was. "I'm sure we could find something for you on the ship, if this is too much for you right now." Spock must have been wearing off on her since she was able to note the minor details. The slightly sped up breathing, the small bit of sweat on her forehead, and a few other such hints on top of the minute tremble in Tali's body that said she was afraid. _Spock didn't want to talk about it...and maybe it was just as well if she's this nervous just standing by the airlock like this..._

"I...have to do this. If I don't try now...I'll never do it. Facing one's fears...that was something Shepard did a lot and encouraged others to do. I never would have made it this far otherwise." Tali took a steadying breath and Christine wasn't the only one that was a little surprised when the quarian pressed the button to open the door in front of them.

Chapel wanted to cheer, cry, and hug the girl to death at the same time, but she limited herself to a subtle smile. Uhura was also surprised, and pleasantly so since she had a little bit of an idea of what this meant thanks to what Spock hadn't said a word about. To everyone else he was closed off, but to her, he shared everything but not this time. For him to not do so, it must have been something big, of course the incident on the bridge told her that much as well. The small grin on Bones' face was all he gave away as they started walking along the umbilical to the station itself.

Tali was mesmerized, not just by the further evidence of tech that was beyond her wildest dreams, but by the various other sentient beings who inhabited this strange new reality. Just in the docking section alone she saw more races than had ever been discovered in her universe. Some that looked like Mr. Spock, others with blue skin and odd antenna like limbs sticking out of their heads, and many many more she couldn't begin to classify. She couldn't help blushing as a green skinned woman with jet black hair, clearly a Starfleet officer as well, gave her the most curious and alluring look Tali had ever gotten in her life, well besides from Shepard anyway, but that was another matter entirely.

"Why hello... I don't believe I have seen anyone from such a...beautiful species as your's before. What's your name honey?" Tali was tongue tied and couldn't begin to get her mouth to work, but thankfully she didn't have to as Uhura, Christine, and Leonard stood between her and the woman in front of her a moment later.

"Not interested. That's her name, now go find some fun elsewhere, _Ensign._**" **Uhura glared at the orion woman in front of their small group, clearly unhappy about where this might have wound up if Tali had been alone. "Besides, don't you have somewhere to be, preferably before I report you for sexual harassment?"

How Uhura had survived living in a dorm room with an orion before she became an officer on the _Enterprise _was beyond her at that moment. Gaila had had a literal parade of men and women coming and going through their room, and she had tried to reign in the girl's hormones, to little success. But even Gaila had had far more class than to hit on an obviously young and highly nervous alien girl. Uhura couldn't help but feel her heart break a little more since she was never able to see Gaila again after the Battle of Vulcan.

She had died along with thousands of other Starfleet crew members on the six ships that had gone up against Nero's vessel. An entire planet had been lost as well, Spock's planet, and it still gave him nightmares although he was slowly getting better. His race was slowly recovering, but the loss would always remain, as it would always remain for Uhura and everyone else that had been affected by the tragedy. Thankfully the orion had wandered off when it became apparent she wasn't going to get lucky here and now.

"Thank you...I just felt so pulled to her... Lt. Uhura, are you alright?" Tali instantly noticed the distant look in Uhura's eyes as she watched the beautiful alien officer slowly walk away.

"Let's...find somewhere quiet to talk, Tali." Uhura managed to say, earning a quiet nod from Chapel and McCoy since they knew all too well what was going through the woman's head since they had been a part of it in some capacity, same as everyone else onboard the _Enterprise_. She had since gotten the impression that Tali wouldn't budge until she had some answers as to why she looked so bothered. Uhura had never met anyone quite like Tali; not just because she was from a new and interesting species, but because of her intensely caring and perhaps overly curious nature as well. That wasn't a bad thing in the least in Uhura's opinion though, it just made Tali all the more easy to be around.

McCoy and Chapel had suddenly decided that was the perfect moment to go get them all a snack as Uhura found a nearby artificial garden filled with lush greenery, fountains, and benches. A slight grin broke the frown on her face as Uhura realized Tali had gently grabbed onto her arm, not out of panic but out of concern for her. "I've been in war before, Uhura, and if the look on your face is anything to go by, I'd say you have as well. What happened?" She asked gently, hoping to maybe help the communications officer in any way that she could. "You all have done so much for me, it's only fair I try to return the favor."

"Thank you...normally I wouldn't have brought something like this up, but seeing that officer who was flirting with you earlier...she happened to remind me of someone I lost fairly recently." Uhura couldn't help feeling slightly embarrassed as tears started to flow down her cheeks. "Her name was Gaila, and she was my roommate at the Academy..."

**Forty-five Minutes Later...**

McCoy and Chapel had returned about thirty minutes ago, but had stood off in the distance to let Tali and Uhura talk amongst themselves. "Leave them be, this is good for both of them." Chapel didn't have to be told since she had a similar thought, just McCoy had said it before she could was all.

"I heard the Captain was thinking of assigning Tali in Engineering, maybe we should add Councilor to her job skills as well..." Chapel was impressed by the young woman's ability to calm those around her, as well as provide a patient ear like she had with Nyota. Seeing them on the park bench like they were gave her and McCoy hope for Uhura, and Tali especially. "Once she's had a proper chance to settle in with the crew, I think I'll bring up the idea with her and captain Kirk. On second thought...you might have to talk to Jim. I might hurt him." Chapel smirked and McCoy had to shake his head at his assistant's _mostly_ humorous comment.

McCoy cocked his head to the side, interested in the possibility since it seemed plausible, especially watching the two talk as they were. "Not a bad idea Christine, not a bad idea at all. Now, I hate to be the hard ass here, but aren't we here to get the poor girl some necessities, like clothes for instance? You damn well know she's going to want to get back to Engineering sooner rather than later, so I figure the clock's ticking." McCoy was grinning a little but Chapel knew he wasn't entirely joking either since he was right, as much as she hated to admit it.

"Since when do clocks tick anymore Leonard? Okay, let's go break up their lovely conversation shall we?" Chapel replied, leading the way towards the two who were still locked in deep conversation. It wasn't as depressing as it had been earlier as they heard a heartfelt laugh from both of them before they got close.

"And Joker looks up at EDI's projector and wipes grease on it and then says, 'Not so nosey now are you?' I swear those two could have been married." Tali and Uhura, McCoy and Chapel noticed, had big grins on their faces when they finally got by their side again.

"And all that over her 'joke' about his extranet viewing habits?" Uhura looked up as the medical duo quickly approached them. "Oh...what am I doing?! We're here for you and here I'm wasting all your time!" Uhura felt stupid for having taken so much of their time up with her own problems, but Tali didn't get a chance to tell her it was perfectly okay before Chapel spoke up first.

"It's fine Uhura, you two looked like you needed the time alone." Chapel said, shaking her head as a warm smile formed on her face in an attempt to silently reassure Uhura it truly was alright.

"Please don't worry about it Nyota, I really liked just getting to relax and talk with someone for a while, it was nice." Tali urgently added since sitting in the beautiful park and having a long conversation had made her feel much more at ease with her new surroundings.

McCoy felt a slight pang of jealousy since Jim wasn't the only one that couldn't address Uhura by her first name. Most people didn't get the honor of knowing it to begin with, but almost an hour with Tali and Nyota was allowing her to say it? Still, it showed how much of an impression she had had on the young woman, which was a good thing in McCoy's opinion.

The four of them quickly headed towards the market sections of the starbase in an effort to make up for some lost time. Tali meanwhile had much to think about from what Uhura had told her while they made their way to the market. Time travel was not something that had ever been accomplished in her universe, yet it seemed that somehow, they had managed it in this one. At least, they would, maybe, figure it out but with the time stream changed, who knew if it would happen? Didn't really matter in the end she supposed, but the fact remained that it had been possible. The fact someone had used it as a weapon was terrifying in a way that even the Reapers hadn't managed to be.

She hadn't mentioned any of her own war to Uhura, figuring she had enough on her mind as it were, but if she ever asked, Tali would tell her whatever she wanted to know. It'd do her some good as well most likely since even before her shift in realities, Tali had had many nightmares about the Collectors and what they were doing to the human colonies, as well as her battle against Saren and Sovereign. She hadn't had any trouble lately because Tali hadn't allowed herself time to think about it, but she knew eventually she would go back to those dark places.

She pushed it into the back of her mind for now, needing to get her shopping done before she did anything else and quickly dashed into the nearest clothing store she saw. A few minutes later the three officers were doing their utmost not to laugh at one particular set of 'clothes' Tali had tried on. Considering there was far too much red lace and not much else, it didn't leave much to the imagination. She did cut an attractive figure, but that wasn't the point.

McCoy leaned over to Chapel and Uhura, quietly whispering to them. "I ain't gonna be the one to tell her, so I'll let you two decide how to break it to her."

Uhura gave an irritated huff, before rolling her eyes at the man. "I'll do it, you big wimp." Racking her brain for the kindest way to do this, Nyota tipped Tali's shoulder. "Um... sorry to interrupt, but ah..."

"It's lingerie? I know. I just...wanted to know what it felt like..." Tali blushed since it probably sounded stupid to Uhura, but to her it was a first time experience to have anything on besides her environmental suit. Well, technically Chapel's borrowed clothing was her real first, but that didn't necessarily count in Tali's opinion. The clothes weren't hers. "This is a...big step for me Nyota, you can't begin to imagine what it's like to never be able to feel anything, smell anything, even feel the sun on your face your whole life and then suddenly someone gives you the power to do so."

Uhura knew she'd never understand, truly understand what what must be going through Tali's head but she got the idea well enough. "I'm not against the idea of you experimenting Tali, but uh...maybe you should wear something like this back on the ship without prying eyes to worry about?" Tali hadn't thought of that in her eagerness to test her new gift of being able to live outside her suit.

"Sorry...you're right. I'll uh...be right back." Uhura glared at McCoy as Tali went back into the changing room and quickly switched back into Chapel's borrowed clothing, the other 'outfit' folded up neatly in her arms.

Between Tali's overly kind words and the less than subtle attire she'd been wearing, McCoy felt a blush coming on and instantly averted his gaze. _Thank Christ Jim wasn't here to see this, I'd never have heard the end of it. Oh no... Ah Hell!_

McCoy internally cringed as Tali went to the front desk and paid for the lacy affair she had tried on. It was the doctor's turn to glare at Uhura since he had hoped that she'd have talked Tali out of buying it altogether, but that didn't happen. Nyota just grinned a little since McCoy had put her in the uncomfortable position of trying to gently break it to Tali that she was probably scaring him half to death with the outfit she had tried on. McCoy couldn't help feeling a little protective of her since if he was being honest with himself she was already like a daughter to him. Perhaps his fatherly instinct was all the stronger because of his inability to see his own nine year old daughter, Joanna, a victim of his bitter divorce from his controlling ex-wife. Whatever the case, he was glad that she had put the outfit away in the bag the store owner had handed to her.

To McCoy's great relief _that _store was quickly abandoned in favor of a more practical clothing vendor. As much as he'd liked at maintain his reputation as a usually irritating man with a less than outstanding bedside manner, Leonard couldn't keep a constant grin off his face. Seeing Tali getting to enjoy some of the simplest things in life, as well as the incredible effect she had on Uhura and Chapel, made him content in a way he hadn't felt in years. _Damn...I'm letting all this get to me.. I should really stop grinning like a stupid idiot already_

His thoughts were interrupted when Nyota practically demanded that Tali let her pay for a elegant looking dark purple colored dress the quarian had been eying. Not to be outdone, Chapel insisted on buying a few items for Tali also. It didn't take long for Leonard to realize he was going to be the odd-man-out, literally and metaphorically. While Tali was insisting that she had repay Nyota by teaching her Khelish, the quarian language, McCoy desperately looked everywhere around him for a quick gift.

"Uh, um... here!" McCoy grabbed at the nearest t-shirt he could get his hands on, which might not have been the greatest idea as Tali unfolded it to find it boldly declared, 'Starfleet Engineers Are Warped People', in giant white letters. _Aw crap...maybe I can fix this. _**"**Just kidding, here let me get you something nice." Tali instantly jerked the shirt away from him as he tried to snatch it back.

"I...love this!" Leonard's embarrassment disappeared at the huge smile on Tali's face. _Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all?_McCoy rubbed the back of his head and couldn't help but grin a little as well at his unintentional success. "That's so funny Leon- I mean Dr. McCoy."

"Just call him Bones, or better yet, Bonehead, that's what I do." Chapel chuckled from behind McCoy, earning a playful glare from the doctor in question while Uhura and Tali had to fight a little hard not to laugh at the man's embarrassment.

"Ya got it right the first time. I just got you a corny t-shirt Tali, so you are officially allowed to call me Leonard." Leonard replied, smiling at the goofy grin that was on the quarian's face. Whatever the case might have been, McCoy knew that he would never make Tali upset if he could help it.

"Just don't call him Leo, he absolutely hates that right Bonehead?" Chapel burst out into laughter at McCoy's undignified glare. "What? I'm just giving her fair warning _Leo_."

"My ex-wife used to call me that Chapel. Usually when she was pissed off. I'm a doctor, not a slave, or so I used to tell her all the time." McCoy almost jumped out of his skin when he distracted himself by looking at some of the other shirts. _Jesus H. Christ! Good thing I didn't grab the 'Engineers Do It Faster Than Light' one! _So caught up in the shirt he had found, he didn't know that Chapel and Tali both looked a little upset at their earlier behavior at his expense, especially with Chapel's reminder of his divorce.

"You never said...sorry I brought it up Leonard." Chapel could have kicked herself right then. While she had gotten to know McCoy quite well, he had never shared why he hated that particular nickname so intensely with her, until a few seconds ago anyway.

"Yeah well, don't worry about it Christine. It's been years now, I've gotten over it." The fact that the three women saw that McCoy still wore a wedding band begged to differ with his statement. Even Tali knew its meaning, having studied certain romantic human rituals and customs, but the small smile on McCoy's face did set them at ease since it seemed he was on his way to getting over his ex, if nothing else.

**Thirty Minutes Later...**

They had just gotten back to the docking area, a now truly exhausted McCoy trailing behind the still very cheery women, when Tali stopped in her tracks. Uhura was the first to realize why as she looked toward the sign Tali was staring at, 'Risa Resort Transport Shuttle 651 Now Arriving.' "Tali? Maybe we should take this a little slower. A starbase is one thing; it's contained, the air is re-filtered every which way, and the lights are artificial. Maybe next time?"

"Keelah... what's wrong with me?! My whole life I dreamed of doing something like..." Chapel instantly put her hands on Tali's shoulders, her now sobbing form shaking badly. McCoy and Uhura could only watch as Tali was pulled into a hug by Chapel before she silently beckoned them to help her calm the young quarian down. McCoy noticed as Uhura walked away a few steps and pulled out her communicator as he walked over to Tali and Chapel. He could have sworn he heard the tell tale noise of someone beaming outside the airlock a moment later.

Not surprised at all, Leonard silently thanked him when Scotty came walking out of the station side airlock less than a minute later. "Ah! There ya are lass. You try to buy half the station already Tali?" He grinned at her as he rapidly walked over. "Well, it's great to have found you so quickly, seems we have a wee bit of a problem with the ongoing repairs to the _Enterprise_, and I thought you might like to assist me." Tali forgot about her earlier woes as well as all about the several bags of clothes and personal items as she hugged Scotty tightly against her. "Um... You're...welcome! There you have it, always so much excitement going on." The four of them quickly grabbed Tali's forgotten shopping spree after she stopped squeezing the life out of Scotty and shot off back towards the ship.

Chapel and McCoy didn't dare give Scotty and Uhura more than the subtlest of nods as they ran just to keep up with Tali. McCoy wasn't complaining since he had long since decided that he preferred Tali smiling and happy rather than crying her eyes out as she had been a moment ago. He didn't particularly care if Jim and Scotty had to find some more 'damage' to be repaired if it made Tali as happy as she was now.

**The Bridge**

"Captain... the complexity of human pranks still eludes me. How exactly is it that a secondary fusion generator control panel and one of our hydro turbines suddenly and inexplicably 'went on the fritz' as Chief Engineer Scot has reported to have happened?"

"Oh... that's easy Spock. Because I ordered him to tell you that. I'm sort of scared of your girlfriend, let's just leave it at that shall we?" Seeing the determined look on Kirk's face, Spock took the most logical approach for this situation, and ignored the matter entirely. He had learned long ago that James was excessively odd even for a human and it was a better idea just to let some things go.

**Main Engineering **

**Five minutes later.**

"Did someone purposely sabotage this control panel?" Scotty quickly looked away before Tali could see the blush on his cheeks. "Scotty...did you have something to do with this? There's coffee all over the control panel...and is this a piece of gum holding these circuits together?! Scotty!" The Scotsman had since tried to sneak off but Tali had him by his arm before he got five steps away, pulling him close so their eyes were level with the each other.

"It wasn't ma idea, I swear! Talk to Kirk lass." Scotty was shocked that such a wee gentle lass was so incredibly strong, and very angry it seemed as she snapped Scott's communicator from his belt.

"Tali'Zorah to _Captain _Kirk, respond please." She didn't sound happy at all, and Scotty didn't have to look at her face to see that much since his arm was still a little tender from her grab a moment ago.

Kirk's surprised voice emitted from the device a moment later. "Hi Tali... how's it going? Sorry to have to send Scotty and cut your shore le-"

"You bosh'tet! Did you order Mr. Scott to _purposely _damage equipment so I could help 'fix' it?"

**The Bridge **

Kirk instantly knew he was in trouble, but he had an ace of his own up his sleeve since Uhura had already told him as well as Scotty what had been going on. "I...might have said it would give ya something to distract you from how upset..." _Oh crap, how did I walk into that trap?! Wait... huh... that might get me out of this... _Kirk's voice suddenly became stern, a rarity for him. "Actually, I don't believe that is a very proper way to speak to your captain, Crewman Tali'Zorah...vas Enterprise."

"Well I don't give a crap what you... wait... what did you say?" Tali's jaw dropped in shock, surely she must have heard that wrong. Scotty could only smile from behind his new assistant's back since he already knew the happy news.

"I said... _Crewman... _that you should have a little more respect for your captain." At this point Kirk was almost tearing up from trying to hold back his laughter. Tali's next words wiped the smirk off of his face.

"Don't push your luck _captain._Where I come from someone that tells one of their crew members to damage their own ship is put on trial for treason. For a quarian, that is a fate worse than death since they can never return home again." What Kirk wasn't aware of was that Tali was having to bite her tongue from squealing with glee at her new position onboard the _Enterprise_.

"Geez Tali, chill out and be happy for once. I hereby order you to enjoy the rest of your day, so go get greasy with Scotty or something. Wait...that came out all wrong." Tali's belly deep laughter from his chair's intercom was enough for Kirk to forget how bad that last comment had sounded. He could only grin as he responded. "Was that so hard Crewman Tali? Enjoy your time with us, you more than deserve it. It won't be easy, you'll need to catch up on the rest of our technology, but you're smarter than the average cadet by a long shot, you'll be fine."

"Thank you, captain." Tali's sincerity was impossible to miss over the comm line, and Scotty had a front row seat to a similar facial expression the young mechanic's face. He was almost just as happy for their newest member as McCoy would be he was sure. "I won't let you down. Keelah se'lai. Um...I'll have to explain that one later."

Spock had heard that last bit and looked to James as if he was ready to faint as his mind meld with Tali hit him like a solar storm. _By the home world I hope to see someday._It was an unfortunate side effect from a mind meld of such intensity as Tali's had been with Spock. Reminders like that simple phrase would bring those memories rushing to the surface and blast through whatever mental defenses he had in place to prevent such a thing. "I need to go down to Engineering, captain. I find...that I'm emotionally compromised once again, and the only way to correct it is if Crewman Zorah allows me to talk with her about the memories we have shared."

"I don't pretend to understand how that mind meld affected either of you Spock. If you think it will help, permission to leave the bridge Commander. Just keep Bones and I updated, alright?" Kirk wasn't going to take any chances with his XO's or brand new Crewman's health, mental or otherwise, and if it did help he was more than willing to let Spock have some time off.

**Main Engineering.**

**Two minutes later.**

Tali jolted as she stood up from under a console that needed some maintenance, to find Commander Spock standing behind her. "Could we speak for a moment, Crewman Zorah? I wish to discuss the mind meld I performed on you, I fear it has had...greater side effects than expected."

Tali had wanted to tear Spock a new induction port for what she had been forced into, but one look at his face told her that he was troubled. Being a quarian amongst only her race during her younger years had taught Tali how to read another's body language, otherwise she might have missed the slight hints of how deeply affected Spock truly was. She didn't know nearly enough about vulcans to understand what it meant for Spock to ask for anything like this, but she got the impression it wasn't easy all the same. "Alright. Chief Engineer Scott? Permission to leave my post?"

Scott had looked up from a nearby console and simply waved her off. "Ack! Don't be treatin' me so proper lass, makes me feel old." He didn't have to ask her to explain her need to leave so quickly after being officially assigned to him. Spock never came down to Engineering, that was explanation enough for him.

"Um... is that a yes Chief Eng-"

"Yes! Yes, go, go on, shoo!" When Tali cocked her head in further confusion, he sighed. "You. Are. Relieved. Crewman, permission granted." _I'll nay be able to put up with this for long..._

Tali was getting the hint that Scotty wasn't much for proprietary either, just like the Captain, and she felt a little foolish for having to make him spell it out for her. "Uh...thanks. Alright, we can...go." Her cheeks were black once again as Spock raised an eyebrow at Tali and Scott's interaction. As they walked to a nearby office, Tali muttered to herself. "Humans are so confusing sometimes..."

Spock's excellent hearing caught her quiet statement. "I am as equally perplexed by their actions as well." Tali gasped in shock since she hadn't meant for that to be heard. But she felt a little better about her current situation since it seemed they had something in common. "Human pranks and their complexity for example, escape me entirely."

"Their humor escapes you? Maybe you should try chasing after it." Tali couldn't help a small smile from forming on her face as she tried a simple joke on Spock. His response reminded her of Legion, their resident geth.

"How would one... ah, that was a joke, was it not? I still do not see the 'humor' in chasing after a non physical entity such as an idea."

"Oh Keelah... EDI had a better sense of humor, and she was the _Normandy's_onboard A.I." Tali wanted to facepalm herself since this was giving her a major sense of deja vu, and not exactly in a good way either. After she had gotten past her fear of the geth...after she had gotten past her fear of Legion, she had had many talks with the machine, most of them very enlightening on both of their parts, but humor had utterly escaped it...him. The fact she was thinking about that particular platform as a person was something else entirely.

"I am not sure if that qualifies as an insult or another joke... perhaps both?"

Tali noticed a couple chairs and moved to sit down before stopping Spock short. "Um...Commander could we sit down for this chat you wanted to have?"

Spock raised a curious eyebrow. "At ease Crewman, please sit." He remained standing until he caught onto the fact he was supposed to sit down as well. Uhura would have found the slight twitch in his cheeks cute, as he sat down a moment later, feeling slightly embarrassed for being a little slow on the uptake. "If you would allow me, I wish to speak of the memories which we have shared."

"Why?" Tali had a feeling she wasn't going to like where this was going, especially after she remembered that the first painful memory Spock had brought to the surface was the recent death of her father.

"I have been...distracted from my duties as of late, and I find the only logical way to deal with what we shared is to talk about it. As I would never speak of your personal memories to anyone else without your explicit permission, I find myself in need of your assistance or your permission, if not both."

That caught Tali by surprise since she hadn't expected anything like this. "I...hadn't realized it would have such a profound effect on you as well. Wait...I remember now, you didn't just observe those memories, did you? Keelah...you experienced them as well? I can understand why they bothered you so much if that's the case. Where do you...want to start?" Some of her memories, especially those involving her father, would not be easy to talk about, but maybe...it would help both of them if they did?

"Logically, I believe we should start at the beginning Ms. Zorah. I sense your discomfort, please do not feel obligated to share any information you do not wish to."

"It's alright... I'll tell you whatever you want to know. The beginning, well I'll start with my childhood then..."

**Three days later...**

She had settled into a comforting routine since being assigned to Chief Engineer Scott. For anyone else it wasn't a big deal, but for Tali, experimenting with clothing was a bit of a big deal for her since the highly sensitive nerves in her skin weren't ready for certain fabrics just yet. Needless to say, she wasn't looking forward to laundry day for that same reason. The standard uniform was out of the question since whatever fabric the outfit had been made from irritated her skin badly. Nearly to the point that by the time her first shift had been over, she might have been in sick bay from it if she had worn it for any longer. McCoy had not been happy with her for insisting on wearing it, to say the least. After she had apologized to Scott the first time she had been officially out of uniform, he had ordered her, begged her actually, to wear whatever she felt like. Apparently, Scotty was allergic to death threats from Chapel. Since then, she had been quite happy with her attire.

That first day though, she was glad no one had figured out how close she had been to passing out from the standard uniform, otherwise Chapel might have physically harmed Scotty when Tali found out about it later that day. Whatever the case, it usually took her an hour to settle on a comfortable and appropriate outfit in the mornings before she even got cleaned up for the day. Thankfully she had always been an early riser so she always had plenty of time to go through her new morning routine.

Breakfast always followed of course, especially after McCoy threatened her with being intravenously fed if that was what it took to make her eat rather than spend her mornings reading up on their technology when she wasn't working. And if she wasn't working, she was supposed to be taking it easy since McCoy had made it pretty clear that he'd sedate her if he suspected she was working herself to death. Chapel just happened to check on her a couple times a day, wherever she might be. Tali had started making a game of it with the nurse by finding reasons to work in harder to get to places. Even Spock made it a habit of challenging her to a daily game of three-dimensional chess, most likely with the same intent as McCoy and Chapel's concern for her health. As much as she appreciated their concern, it was starting to get a little annoying. She wasn't a child after all, they didn't have to babysit her.

In the afternoons she had lunch with Uhura, Sulu, and either Chapel, McCoy, or sometimes even James when his duties as captain didn't keep him too busy. She greatly enjoyed lunch since she and Uhura had become very good friends since that first day on Risa's starbase. Unfortunately Chekov hadn't gotten a chance to meet their newest member yet, but as soon as they were able to meet up, he had promised in a nicely worded message to her private terminal that he planned to do just that. Tali had sent a reply back and had said she looked forward to it. That aside, usually after lunch Uhura made it a point to learn more about her language, and Tali was more than happy to teach her since she was very good at picking up the pronunciations necessary to speak Khelish.

By the time her shifts ended, well it was more like Scotty having to kick her out of Engineering lest he face an angry McCoy and Chapel's wrath, she would have a quiet dinner while reading over a stack of datapads that were rich with technical specs for everything she could get her hands on as well as the physics necessary to allow them to work. Element zero fueled drive cores were diesel engines compared to what these people possessed. It required a far greater education than Tali had initially possessed to completely understand it all, but she was quickly catching up. A month, maybe two tops and she'd be on their level she was sure.

After dinner she sometimes managed to find Spock for more trips down memory lane, but she had given him permission to speak with only two people about what they had shared. One of them was Uhura since she had since gotten into the habit of talking about her past experiences with the woman anyway, and the other was James but Tali had made sure that Spock only shared the more military related issues with the captain. The Reapers and the threat they posed for instance was at the top of her concerns. Even if they were in another reality altogether, he deserved to know since for all she knew, there could be something like them in this one.

**Two Days Later...**

The _Enterprise's _repairs were nearly complete and Jim had shuffled around their upcoming missions to allow the crew a little extra shore leave. Which was fortunate for one Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreivich. He was practically running to transporter room two for some much needed R & R only to find that their new crew member was talking to one of the transporter operators. "Oh, Ms. Zorah. Learning about our beaming technology are ve?" His genial smile put Tali at ease as she felt her cheeks start to turn a shade darker. "I think you vill find it quite fascinating, it is an amazing inwention."

"It's incredible! But... Ensign Chekov... doesn't it scare you, just a little bit? I mean, being disassembled at a subatomic level before being put back together an instant later somewhere else?" Pavel caught Tali's shiver of fear as she stared at the transporter pads. It certainly gave him something to consider if nothing else since now that he bothered to think about it, Chekov could see where it would be a bit startling.

"I had never considered it before Ms. Zorah. It's just something I'm used to, same as you were used to wearing an environmental suit I guess." He confidently stepped up onto one of the pads and held his hand out to her. "Here, vould you like to come vith me down to the planet? I'm told it's an extremely beautiful place."

Normally Tali wouldn't have considered going planet-side so soon, but she had been doing a lot of things she hadn't considered she'd ever do before. Besides, who knew when she'd get the chance to visit a planet again? It was now or never, just as it had been with the starbase a few days ago. "And you're sure this is perfectly safe? Nothing... bad will happen if I use this device?" Tali reached out with a shaking hand as Chekov helped her up.

"You vill be perfectly alright, I promise you...are you ready?" Chekov nodded to the operator. "Energize."

Two seconds too late, Tali realized that the transfer had already happened as she shouted. "Oh Keelah! I'm not crazy enough to do this! Wait...we're not on the ship?" Chekov was biting his tongue as he stood next to her in the middle of one of Risa's resort complexes, a large white sandy beach not a stone's throw away. More specifically, they were located on the grounds of one of Risa's best vacation spots for Starfleet officers, or so the reviews had said anyway. "Is that a beach?"

Chekov had heard most of the stories pertaining to Tali's previous non-existent immune system and how she had lived most of her life in an environmental suit, but he hadn't been prepared for her mixture of emotional responses. Fear came first, but that was quickly replaced by the exhilaration of actually standing on a planet without having to suck in air through filters, let alone being able to feel wind and the surf against her skin and through her hair. She couldn't have been happier after she pushed back that initial fear of the unknown as Tali's grey blue eyes shone with just how truly happy she was. "You have...no idea what you've given me."

Pavel quickly spotted a bunch of flowers nearby and picked one. "I heard a few things before now about you Ms. Zorah, but you're right, I really don't and I probably never vill. Still, seeing you so happy gives me another good idea. Here." Chekov gently handed Tali the blue wild flower he had picked, and he was glad to have talked her into coming just to see the look on her face when she inhaled it's fragrance.

"Thank you... I can never repay you for this..." Everyone on the _Enterprise _had been doing so much for her. She'd never be able to repay them all appropriately, but Tali was bound determined to try. Even as tears of joy started to fall from her eyes, she still had an enormous smile on her face.

"Vell...would you be interested in hearing the many great contributions of the Russian people to humanity? The others are alvays, vell they're not wery interested when I mention that." Tali could only laugh as she wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt as she beckoned Chekov towards the beach. If they were going to talk, she wanted to feel the sand between her toes and the sea breeze on her face. "Vould you like some sun block?" Tali looked at the cream Chekov was liberally applying on his skin from a bottle and just shook her head with a gleaming smile. Chekov had the funny feeling that she'd enjoy getting sun-burnt as well as he followed Tali and plopped down on the sand next her without needing to be asked twice. Could quarians even get sunburns? He guessed they'd find out one way or the other.

_Archer83: Well that was a little longer than I figured it'd be. Once we get started it's hard to stop! Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, Vergil and I wanted to go for a nice mix of humor and drama. I think we managed to pull it off, while trying to keep everyone in character at the same time. _

_Vergil1998 the Crossover King: Guess that's another chapter down at last. :D_

_Envirosuit: Argumentatively: Long chapter, more enjoyment for the readers._

_Vergil: Not if they're like the readers I had for my Final Calibur before I stopped trying to update it. 16k was far too much for them apparently. And apparently we have an Elcor in the cast. Great, as if my day wasn't weird enough. :P_

_Archer83: Oh great Enviro thinks he's an elcor now... _

_Envirosuit: Condescendingly: You did compare me to one. Both of you. It fits._

_Vergil: Where do you get these crazies Archer? First we had an orion try to hit on Tali, and now this. Joking aside, before we have anyone trying to chase us down with pitchforks and flaming torches, we know that orion normally can't affect women the same way they do men. We figured to...tweak them a little bit for this lol._

_Envirosuit: Sarcastically: I'd just love to meet an orion..._

_Vergil: You might want to check up on their data first before you say that. Men become their slaves through the use of their pheromones while women are normally repelled by the same. Orion males have the reverse effect as far as I was able to figure out anyway. For this though we have it to where that they can pick and choose who they want to draw in and who they want to keep at bay._

_Archer83: Totally worth it..._

_Envirosuit: Sarcastically: Agreed._

_Vergil: Ah hell, I have to go with it too, lol. My luck it'd be the only way I'd get laid anyway. :P_

_Envirosuit: Truthfully: The truth hurts._

_Vergil; Yes, yes it does. Well, that's all folks. Hope you enjoyed this!_


End file.
